“Delighted” has become one of Meath manager Séamus McEnaney’s favourite words in recent weeks. A week ago yesterday the Monaghan native was delighted to get out of Tullamore with a draw and back at the same venue on Saturday night, he was “absolutely delighted to see Meath back in the Leinster semi-final”.

Meath had the advantage of the breeze in the first half and McEnaney felt that it was a factor.

“It took us a while to get into a scoring rhythm. The players worked very hard, we didn’t take Carlow for granted the first day but our scoring was much better tonight,” he said.

The Royals boss has been stressing that form shown in training decides who starts games and who doesn’t.

“There is very keen competition for places and all the young players have done well. Damien Carroll made his championship debut tonight and showed he is worth his place.

“Brian Meade was unlucky to get injured but Peadar Byrne came on and got the goals. Brian Farrell has come into serious form.

“Overall the work ethic was the most pleasing aspect of the display,” remarked McEnaney who can now look forward to taking the team back to Croke Park.

Meanwhile Carlow manager Luke Dempsey was looking forward to the Qualifiers draw. “We can take a lot of heart from our displays against Meath and the players have pledged to stick together for the Qualifiers,” he said.

“Brendan Murphy was unable to make the same impact as in the drawn game and we started going out of the game in the second quarter. Meath’s forwards were very strong and they could do well in the coming rounds of the championship,” Dempsey suggested.