Untidy fare leaves Royal court content but unfulfilled

"Some goals, weren't they. Aw stop." On his trek back from delivering some generous words to a shattered Armagh dressing-room, Sean Boylan leans against a wall for a minute's solace and it comes as a surprise to the retreating press hordes to see him standing there, more or less alone.

This has been a gruelling affair, interesting in the way that watching the demolition of buildings is interesting. Singularly unlovely. The Meath manager, for once looking slightly drained by his involvement, begins by reflecting on the few moments of Armagh flair, paying particular tribute to Jarlath Burns.

"He was captain out there today and by God did he lead by example. I think he was instrumental in both goals and they were fine scores, really knocked the backside off us, you know. We were lucky to be within a roar of them at half-time," he says.

At the break, though, Meath retired looking fairly composed and not bad value trailing by two points. Trevor Giles, red-faced and calmeyed, is fairly vague as to what passed between players and manager during the interval.

"Half-time? I can't really remember," he confesses, as if half surprised by his lack of recall.

"I suppose we had to just go out and try our best because we had nothing left to lose, two points down and everything."

Giles himself exerted increasing influence on the game as Meath turned the screw, directing flawless ball at the blond-haired Graham Geraghty, who caused untold mischief as the game wore on. Still, the laboriousness with which Meath finally closed the game down was clearly niggling at Giles.

"It took us a lot of time to kill it off. Armagh never gave up, but we could have killed it off a bit better. We had a three-point lead for a long while there and a lot of wides then - corner backs coming up and missing chances," he reflects in a tone which suggests the sight didn't exactly tickle him.

"But I suppose you could put that down to the type of game it was, everyone was all over the place," he adds hastily.

Across the room, Cormac Murphy is offering an efficient summary of his interpretation of the match.

"In the first half, we were almost afraid to play and in the second half we pulled out all the stops out and played Meath football like it ought to be played," he declared.

"We were pulled all over the place in the first half, they caused a bit off confusion, but then in the second half we had that bit of fire in our bellies and the likes of Ray McGee showed the strength of depth in our panel. "Fair play to the defence too, we stopped them scoring - I think they just had a free in the second half and then Trevor Giles started to move it in that bit better," he says.

All around the dressing-room Meath men are talking in similar fashion, content in a casual sense, but far from euphoric.

Enda McManus praises Trevor Giles. Giles applauds the defence. And Darren Fay puts a word in for John McDermott.

"He was my man of the match anyway. He was disappointed the last day and couldn't really play well under the circumstances, but fair play, today he was incredible."

In the early exchanges, Fay had wandered around the field and announced himself fairly pleased with the experience.

"Yeah, well, I didn't really mind that, although I must practise me shooting for the next day, I had one which I think was about 40 yards wide. But no, it was decided that I was going to go with my man until told otherwise. I suppose we left it a bit late, what with the two goals going in, but they didn't capitalise on those and we stuck to our task."

The issue of Ger Reid's dismissal is raised and Cormac Murphy talks straight.

"Thought he deserved it. You know, two personal fouls, that's the way the game is played nowadays. He got one yellow and it was only a matter of time really before he got the red at some stage."

Boylan broadens the debate, pointing out that any dismissal is a tricky can of worms for both teams.

"If you lose with an extra man they say you didn't use him well, and if you win with 14 men they say it was an advantage. To be honest, I'd didn't know Ger had been booked in the first half. For the sending off, I saw us win the free, turned to get a drink of water and when I looked up the card was out. It was unfortunate for Ger and no one likes to see anyone sent off in a football match."

But this was a relentlesly boneshuddering game, jam-packed with hard hits and dragging. Paddy Russell whistled 48 times over the 70 minutes.

"Ah, it was physical all right, but good honest football, too; big six footers everywhere and everyone hungry for the ball," offers Enda McManus before departing.

"Well, I found the referee . . . ah, referees are referees," declares Cormac Murphy, checking himself in favour of stoicism.

"I'm not going to say too much about him," he warned, and remained true to his word.

"I thought he was fairly good, he let a lot go as well and that's the way GAA should be played," he concluded.

And precisely how it will be played in the championship game of the century. Meath and Cork. The connotations alone hold enough to make most men wince. Not Boylan, though. He is happy to leave such considerations for the days ahead.

"The final? God, I haven't even thought of it yet," he sighs. "Sure give us a call during the week."

September beckons and Meath are open for business.

Anyone surprised?