Ruairí Kinsella lauded Meath’s character and belief after their thrilling All-Ireland SFC quarter-final victory over Galway.

Leading by six points midway through the second half, the Royals conceded 2-3 in the space of four minutes to fall three behind before wrestling back control through man of the match Jordan Morris’ palmed goal.

"When Galway scored that second goal to go three up, I'd say 90% of the country wrote us off then, there and then,” the Dunshaughlin forward told the media in Croke Park.

"It shows the character in the team, the belief we have that we came back, how hard we've worked all year. We just stayed calm, looked after the ball, and we went again. It was next ball, next ball, next ball. And we came out the right side."

Commenting on Meath’s new-found belief, Kinsella added: “The boys who have come in in the management have just instilled that belief into us. I feel like over the years we've had the quality, we've had the players, but the belief just wasn't there.

"I think we didn't have the confidence to say, 'Oh yeah, we can beat these teams'. Whereas this year it's a completely different story, we've gone into every game thinking, 'Yeah, why can't we win this game?' So yeah, we've shown that so far in the Championship this year and hopefully we can keep that going."

The revitalised Royals can now look forward to an All-Ireland semi-final against Donegal on Sunday week.

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