Fay anxious to avoid the pitfall of back door

DARREN FAY admits that Meath need the hype that goes with a concerted Leinster Championship campaign if they are to put two disappointing years behind them this summer.

Not since 1996 have Sean Boylan's side begun a championship campaign so far down the provincial and national pecking order, despite Leinster being portrayed as a lottery again this year.

Of course, Meath went on to win the All-Ireland eight years ago but few would predict a similar run this year.

What Fay and his teammates are desperate to avoid though, is another early exit from Leinster they've lost at the semi-final stage the last two years and a trip through the vagaries of the qualifier system.

Their first journey through the back door in 2002 saw them beat Louth and Laois before making their exit against Donegal in Croke Park.

Last year was even worse, beating Monaghan before bowing out tamely against Fermanagh. For Fay, Leinster is the only way to go.

"People look at how we went out against Fermanagh and say that we weren't up for it, but that wasn't the case.

"I would say that Meath need the hype, we need the buzz of Croke Park to raise our game to the very top.

"Saturday evenings in Clones don't suit Meath and even though Croke Park has been a bit of a monkey on our back in recent years, we still need to be playing there. The province has always been a huge thing for Meath.

"The back door has never done it for us, for whatever reason. We thrive on winning games, on the confidence that brings.

"That's why Sunday is a huge game for us. The last few years we've been poor and we need to get that momentum going, like we did in '96. We were in the same situation then, an unfancied team but getting more and more confident with every game."

Much of the problem with Meath has been an inability to beat teams they would have gone past in their stride even three years ago. It's a tendency that cost them dearly this spring. Despite beating Galway and drawing with Armagh they still found themselves hurtling through the Division Two relegation trapdoor.

"It was a disaster for us to go down because we started the year off in fantastic form," Fay admitted.

"We won the O'Byrne Cup, okay, it was only the O'Byrne Cup, but we set out to win every competition we played in this year.

"We beat Galway on the first day of the League and we were flying. After that we were very inconsistent, playing well against the top teams but not really performing against teams that we maybe felt we had nothing to prove against.

"That inconsistency was disappointing. We could have qualified for the semi-finals or gone down on the last day, but we lost to Sligo and that was that."

Not surprisingly then, Meath aren't prepared to look beyond Sunday's contest with an improving Wicklow side at Croke Park.

"Maybe in the past we've been guilty of thinking about All-Ireland and Leinsters when we would have been better served taking one game at a time.

"That's not the case this time, we're totally focused on Sunday.

"Wicklow had a very good league and were unlucky not to be promoted from Division Two. Hugh Kenny has them playing as a unit, which they haven't done in a few years and they'll feel they have a lot to prove."