Meath manager Colm O'Rourke admitted his players had to look "deep within themselves" to produce a stirring late surge against Louth - and the wind - at Páirc Tailteann on Sunday, while he also called for a change in the structure of the inter-county football season.
The Royal County trailed by a point at half-time and, facing into a stiff breeze, looked like they would be beaten by their gallant neighbours.
Between the 25th and 45th minutes, Meath didn't register a score, however a Matthew Costello point sparked them into life, and they eventually dug out a 1-11 to 1-09 win.
"We were in big trouble," O'Rourke told RTÉ Sport afterwards.
"We were playing into a strong wind, four points behind and playing very poorly.
"Louth were very dominant and had been looking much slicker for the whole of the first half. Our lads had to show a bit of heart and commitment, it was really put up to them. That was the most satisfying part of it. I think we came back and got about 1-06 without reply. That was satisfying.
"Fellas looked deep within themselves and they found something. I suppose we had Donal Keogan to inspire us as well. Everybody seemed to lift their game. We got a couple of points and then we took over the game completely. It was a very strange game from that point of view.
"It's a very competitive division. We have a very young team, they're learning on the hoof, but if we could have more of the last 20 minutes I think we'll be alright."
"It is a big problem, it needs to addressed."
O'Rourke is confident his youthful outfit, who sit joint fourth in Division 2, will improve.
A number of the panel have been playing Sigerson Cup football with their colleges, and while O'Rourke believes the competition serves an important purpose, he did reiterate his belief that the calendar needs to be tweaked to give players breathing space.
"We had up to 15 of our panel involved [in the Sigerson Cup]. We had three involved during the week, two of them not able to play today.
"Obviously, our age profile is different to many county teams. Some counties have stopped their players from playing altogether. I don't think that's right either because the experience of playing Sigerson football is good. A college experience without football wouldn't be really an education.
"[Playing on Wednesdays] means in practice means they can't train Tuesday night and they're not able to train Thursday night.
"It is a big problem, it needs to addressed. The obvious thing would be to play the provincial championships as the early-season competition and put the league back to when the provincial championships are on, and run the league into the championship.
"That would be the answer to it."
Louth manager Ger Brennan said his team's defeat was "disappointing" given how long they had dominated.
"We had quite a good first half playing against a relatively strong wind to go in a point up," he said.
"We controlled large parts of the game but the shot to score ratio was 40% and it's something we need to continue to work at.
"In the second half I think we went four points up but began to lose a bit of shape. I don't have the answer just yet but it was probably a mixture of Meath beginning to play with a bit of reckless abandon and putting the squeeze on us and then handling and support runners for us, we lost a lot of what was good.
"I don't think we scored for 30 minutes."
Louth could possibly have had a penalty in the second half but Brennan wasn't hanging the loss on the decision.
"Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't but it wasn't the winning or losing of the game," he said.
"We probably had three or four goal chances over the 70 minutes.
"We had created enough chances to put a bigger gap between us in that first half and the start of the second half.
"The Meath-Louth rivalry is huge. The lads are hurting inside and extremely disappointed. We have to come out fighting next week against Cavan, who have gone really well."
