Dowd steps up in tale of unexpected

Tommy Dowd, dressed in orange shirt and chinos, stuffs his football kit into a blue hold-all and looks for all the world like a normal human being . . . but this is simply the Meath dressingroom under the New Stand.

But anyone who has watched him weave his magic out on the Croke Park turf for the previous hour or so knows he is no mere mortal.

Just ask Louth.

For much of an enthralling Bank of Ireland Leinster senior football championship semi-final yesterday, Louth looked set to end a hoodoo that has stretched back to 1975 and a June day when they last beat Meath in a provincial championship game. Then, Dowd thought it was time to ensure convention wasn't turned on its head. So, he kicked five points from play - all of them special - and helped Meath transform a four-point deficit at half-time into a hard-earned, one-point winning margin, 0-15 to 111, which took them to next month's final against either Laois or Kildare.

"We've been around long enough to know that you always expect the unexpected," remarked Dowd. "Louth came out and gave it all they had and we're simply delighted to win. A lot of our supporters expected great things after what we did to Offaly and, in a way, Louth had nothing to lose. But we knew it would be tough and it doesn't matter what way you do it as long as you do it - win, that is."

Some 41,384 people preferred to make the trip to Jones's Road to watch live football rather than join the couch potatoes who could pick 'n' choose between the World Cup, Formula One and GAA on the box. They were rewarded with a fine game in which Meath managed to overcome a number of injuries to main players - Darren Fay (concussion) and Jimmy McGuinness (ribs) were replaced during the interval - or, as manager Sean Boylan, called it, "a whole series of little things that weren't going right", to win.

"We owe our win to team work when the pressure was on," stated Boylan, while Louth manager Paddy Clarke said the Meath attackers were "like a tidal wave" coming at them in the second half. However, Louth put up a brave performance and Clarke admitted there was "acute disappointment" after coming so close, and putting "blood and sweat and tears" into training for the past nine months.

Elsewhere, Derry confirmed the mantle of favouritism to beat Armagh in the Ulster football championship semi-final at Clones although they had to work harder than the flattering seven-point winning margin (2-13 to 0-12) would suggest. In Munster, Tipperary kicked just one wide in 20 shots at goal in surprising Clare to book a place in the provincial football final. Tipperary won by 1-16 to 0-12.

And, in Connacht, Sligo salvaged a draw with Roscommon in Hyde Park to keep alive their football championship hopes.