Andy McEntee feels Meath's lack of experience showed in the final 15 minutes of their Super 8s defeat to Donegal in Ballybofey.

An upset looked to be on the cards when the Royals led by 1-12 to 1-11 after 55 minutes, but the Ulster champions then stepped it up and outscored them by 1-8 to 0-1 in the the time remaining to run out nine-point winners. 

"We switched off for a second, from a long kick-out and momentum seemed to shift. Against a quality team when you lose momentum it’s very hard to get it back again and that’s probably what we found today," the Meath manager told RTÉ.

"With a little bit of experience we probably could have tapped over three or four easy scores instead of going for goal but I’m not sure that was the right thing to do either. These are all things we have to be better at and that we try to learn from."

McEntee is hoping his side can learn from the defeat ahead of next Sunday's trip to Croke Park to face Mayo.

"A point up with 15 to go, we didn’t see it through," he lamented.

"There’s a lesson to be learnt again but that’s not the first time we’ve got ourselves into that position.

"Very few teams come up here and get a result, especially in championship football, so when you look at it in the cold light of day, we were there or thereabouts with 15 to go, but Donegal showed the experience they have and the confidence they have in their system of play."

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