ROYALS NEED TO STEP UP

Meath turn around 10-point deficit fo secure semi-final with Dublin

- PAUL KEANE

ROBBIE Brennan acknowledged that Meath mixed the good with the bad in Navan — and he must be hoping things don't get ugly against Dublin.

The Jekyll and Hyde Royals turned a 10-point half-time deficit into a seven-point win to secure a Leinster SFC semi-final date with the Dubs.

It's a dubious reward because they've been hammered by the old enemy too many times over the last decade or so.

And if Meath repeat their first-half display here against Dessie Farrell's crew, it'll probably be game over at half-time.

They did turn in a strong second-half performance and put a healthy 1-25 on the board in total, just shy of the 1-30 they kicked against Carlow.

Mathew Costello led the line superably again, identifying that they were playing well below par and insisting on improvement.

Costello finished with 0-9 and kicked two of Meath's seven second-half two-pointers.

Conor Duke, Costello's Dunshaughlin clubmate, blasted back-to-back two-pointers also while James Conlon weighed in with an important 1-2 after coming on.

Royals chief Brennan addressed the bad parts first, describing the first-half as simply not good enough.

Brennan said: "Wed hoped to set a positive tone for the first-half but we didn't.

"We felt that we weren't putting any pressure on them at all.

"It was easy ball being popped inside to the Offaly full-forward line and they have such good forwards who are always going to cause you trouble."

Then he focused on the good.