Andy McEntee says Meath were fortunate to come away from Navan with a win over Offaly.

An upset looked to be on the cards when the Faithful County scored seven unanswered points after the restart to put themselves in a winning position, but a late Bryan McMahon goal saw the Royals home by two points.

"I hope we don't find ourselves in that position again in a hurry," the relieved Meath manager told RTÉ.  

"The truth of the matter is that we didn't play well enough." Offaly could consider themselves unlucky not to have got something out of the game.

"Our ball retention was poor, our option taking was poor, and then we went through a phase where Offaly got some really good scores. I think we made it easy for them on a number of occasions.

"It was frustrating for the players as much as anything else. I think they expect higher things of themselves, and they were frustrated. We were frustrated, and you could sense the crowd getting a little bit on edge. If everyone is honest with themselves, they probably wouldn't be happy with the performance."

McEntee felt Meath learned from their early Leinster SFC exit at the hands of Longford last year.

"It's probably a game we wouldn't have won this time last year, or two years ago," he continued. 

"They showed loads of ability, in that sphere, over the course of the league. It mightn't have been pretty, but the bottom line is we got the job done."

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