DONEGAL hurlers may have suffered their first defeat in the Allianz Hurling League against a strong Meath side in Navan but their marksman Declan Coulter was not unduly despondent.
The Tir Chonaill men were without three big players as Stephen Gillespie (upcoming nuptials), Danny Cullen (leg injury) and Christopher McDermott (hand injury) were all out.
So it was always going to be a big challenge against the table toppers, who are just down from Division 2A.
In the end Meath had a comfortable enough win by1-23 to 0-16-but 1-5 of that came in the closing minutes when their stronger bench told.
Coulter, who landed 0-8 with six from frees, said: “It was a bit of shot to nothing and we were going in as underdogs and we wanted to see where we were as Meath are the benchmark in that division.
“It was a good test and we put in a performance for 55-60 minutes but they had a strong bench and they got the scores to clinch it.
“We certainly missed the three boys today and it would be nice to get a crack at Meath with our full squad”.
“We were fairly well with them in the first half and just before half-time it was 0-11 to 0-8 but they tacked on three points in injury time which put some daylight between.
“We had targeted the opening two games so this would be a bonus for us and now we have to take lessons from today like a wee bit better decision making on the ball and recycling the ball a bit more at times.
“But we have a fortnight of a break and our next match is against Wicklow who have also come down from a higher grade and then we finish against Tyrone and both of those games are at home”.
The two-week break might now mean that Donegal could yet play Ulster University in the postponed Conor McGurk Cup final.
Coulter reckons it could possibly be played sometime the week after next as they now have 14 days.
“That would be ideal preparation and a midweek game next week and the last thing you would want is for a player getting injured.
“It could be a Tuesday or a Wednesday and 10 days from now.
“The final is in Belfast but it would be very good preparation and like another League game for us.
“It might give some of us old lads a chance to heal up and let the younger lads have a go”.
“But it has been a good start to the League and those two games that we won could be really important at the finish."
