Jack O'Connorsuggests if Meath win the amount of flak will undermine everything Dublin have done but if Dublin win they can regroup

Deja vu in Croke Park on Sunday. Dublin pushing off from the dock at top speed and looking full value for their lead. They were reeled in fairly quickly by Meath though. That's what will worry Pillar Caffrey most. Dublin are irresistible when they are going well. When they start taking water they sink very quickly.

They don't seem able to get the mix right between attacking and defensive football. Good defensive teams shut up the shop when they get ahead and hit teams on the break. Dublin have to get the balance right if they are to progress in the replay and beyond.

Somebody once said about Meath that they play without looking at the scoreboard or the clock. Only a county with great self belief (or arrogance even) can do that or can produce a young player like Cian Ward who came on and kicked points as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

The body language of the free-takers summed up the belief the teams felt. When push came to shove Mossy Quinn missed two or three important frees.

I didn't like his body language when he was standing over them. Mossy didn't appear convincing or convinced. In rugby they call it a pure strike when a kicker is going well. At times Mossy looked like a man having a bad day on the golf course, not knowing whether he was going to hit a hook or a slice off the tee.

By contrast Meath are very certain. The big thing they have going for them is that, like Armagh, they play the same way all the time. Route One is the preferred option so opposition backs often find themselves isolated in one-on-one situations with no help at hand. In that kind of scenario Croke Park is a big lonely place for a back. He knows that whatever ball the forward wins is in the scoring zone. Graham Geraghty could and should have got two goals from that kind of situation.

Meath's philosophy is that the inside line fights for every ball. Some teams lose heart if the long ball doesn't work early on. Not Meath. Back in the famous semi-final of 2001 Seamus Moynihan and Mike McCarthy came out with the first six balls that Meath kicked in towards Graham Geraghty and Ollie Murphy. Meath are Meath though. They kept at it. Eventually the floodgates opened.

Dublin play a game that is a lot more pleasing to the eye but without the same end product. They are a bit like Arsenal. Lots of movement and exciting to watch. Meath are more in the Chelsea mode, functional and not too aesthetically pleasing.

Between them, they are compulsive viewing though. Dublin will be disappointed but there is another way to look at it. This is what they need. I remember a joust we had with Limerick in the 2004 Munster final that finished in a draw.

The referee, Gerry Kinneavy, played eight minutes injury time and made a few very harsh decisions against us on the day. There was steam coming out my ears as I made my way towards him at the final whistle. An old buddy of mine, Jerry Mahony, said to me that night that I should have been rushing to give him a kiss instead of a piece of my mind.

Jerry reckoned the replay would make us. He was proved right. It could prove that way for Dublin too.

The key is how Dublin approach the replay psychologically. Until Sunday Dublin only saw beating Meath as a means to an end. Meath saw the game as an end in itself. They are an emerging team. Beating Dublin would make their season.

There is a huge pitfall there for Dublin. They have to treat this game now as if it stands by itself. If Meath win the amount of flak that will fly will undermine everything Dublin have done. If Dublin win they can regroup and look at what they have taken from the games.

The easy passage to the semi-final last year did Dublin no favours. If they get that far this time at least they will be battle-hardened. They will have had a tough passage through Leinster with Laois having improved also.

Dublin should relish the challenge. It struck me watching Waterford and Kerry that a team's fate can often be decided by things outside their control.

A meaningless stroll in Fraher Field did Kerry no favours. Waterford put up a big fight last year in Killarney. This time, with expectations raised, the cameras rolling and their first championship win in 19 years under their belt, they never raised a gallop.

Kerry looked good, fresh and eager but deep down they will know that it was no preparation for the fire and brimstone that Cork are going to bring to Killarney.

Last year it was our two battles with Cork that made us. Dublin need to look on this Meath series in that sort of light.