Crawford: We did it for Stephen

Giving suspended captain Stephen Bray the opportunity to play in the All-Ireland football semi-final against Kerry on August 30 had been a huge motivation for Meath going into yesterday’s game against Mayo in Croke Park.

Admitting that he had been a huge loss after being red-carded the previous week against Limerick, the team’s sole All-Ireland medal-holder Nigel Crawford agreed it had been a powerful motivation for them to stay in the championship.

"Stephen is probably our best player. It was up to the rest of us to try and work as hard as we could and give him every chance to get back in – and thankfully we did that.’’

For full-forward Brian Farrell, the real satisfaction in winning was in proving to the football world at large the Royals are a better team than they appeared last year.

"It’s great to be back in the last four,’’ he said. "It just lays down a marker that last year was a blip in Meath football.

"When we got beaten down in the Gaelic Grounds by Limerick we got written off a lot in the media. But we have shown that we are a top five or top six team.

"We know we’re back to where we were two years ago. We know we let ourselves down against Cork (in the All-Ireland semi-final). Some will say ‘you can look forward to Kerry,’ but, can you?

"You saw what they did to the Dubs. But we have nothing to lose."