‘SOMETIMES IT’S BAIL OR JAIL... TODAY IT’S JAIL’
COLIN KELLY admitted he and his Louth players will have to take a ‘long, hard look at themselves’ after crashing out of the Leinster championship. The Wee County put up a good fight for 50 minutes or so before caving in under the weight of Meath’s relentless attack. It was their second year in a row losing to the Royal County at Parnell Park and boss Kelly said they can’t keep looking to the future. ‘We felt there were goals in us, if we pushed up forward, and we did get them, but unfortunately we just didn’t play well enough,’ said Kelly. ‘That’s down to Meath and down to us. But I said during the week that there are only so many times you can come here and look to next year. Sometimes we have to question ourselves. ‘I have to question myself as a manager and the players have to take a long, hard look at themselves as well. Why does this happen? ‘Maybe, you know, are you good enough? After another two or three days we’ll get back but it won’t be easy. We can call each other out if we need to and, again, take a long, hard look at ourselves. Today wasn’t good enough and that’s where it’s at.’ Kelly, who managed Meath captain Graham Reilly at club level in the past, admitted they couldn’t get to grips with the centre-forward. ‘He’s a difficult guy to get a handle on,’ said Kelly. ‘It takes a certain type of player to mark Graham. His range of kicking and his pace is very good and he had too much for us today.’ Louth’s defence was cut to ribbons at times and Meath could realistically have scored three goals in the first-half alone. Kelly said: ‘We felt we could score goals ourselves, that’s why we pushed up but at that stage, once you commit and go down that route, it’s bail or jail and unfortunately today it was jail.’