Louth manager Colin Kelly admitted big questions have to be asked about their future after conceding 0-27 points to Meath in a Leinster Football Championship defeat on Sunday.

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The Wee County were level early in the second half but went on to lose by nine points against the Royals.

"I can stand here and give you the party policy line and all the clichés but we just weren't good enough on the day. We knew how big of a task it was.

"People speak about Meath but at the end of the day they're a team that pushed very close for Division 1.

"They've been at a level above us the last two or three years and that's probably a level we want to get at.

"We've been comprehensively beaten in the quarter-final of the Leinster Championship. It's not the time to look for positives.

"We'll sit down and look for positives during the week, but if you've ever been in a beaten Leinster Championship dressing-room you'll realise that it's not the time to look for positives."

Kelly’s men were very much in the game with 45 minutes gone but they were picked off with ease as the game went on. It was one of the highest tallies in Championship history and something that clearly hurt the Louth supremo.

"Look, it was justified, they kicked the scores. We felt we had to change up what we had done the last couple of matches. We played a challenge match against Westmeath with a sweeper and we couldn't stop the runners coming at us.

"Today we said we'd try something different. We pushed up to go for the game and we felt that there was goals in us if we pushed up high enough but we didn't play well enough.

"But there's only so many times you can come here and look to next year, next year. Sometimes we have to question ourselves. I have to question myself as a manager and players have to have a good look at themselves.

"Why does this happen? Maybe it all leads to asking are we good enough?"

Louth face a first round qualifier on Saturday week and Kelly has a big job on his hands to lift the players. He said there will be no fear of harsh words ahead.

"They're a great group to work with, their commitment is second to none. That's won't be easy. There is a lot of friendships built up in the room. But we can do it.

"We can call each other out when we need to, and we have to look at ourselves. Today wasn't good enough."

Kelly’s counterpart, Andy McEntee, was celebrating his first Championship win with Meath, but said they have to work on their defence ahead of the clash with Kildare in the provincial semi-finals. 

"The 27 points is a good scoreline, I think we missed four or five goal chances and that's disappointing, so if we'd have put up 3-25 or 3-26 it would probably be a better reflection of the chances that we had.

"Every goal seemed to hit us on the break. I'm not really sure what happened on the first one. There's a black card up the far end and we don't even get a free for it, so I'm not sure how that works.

"The second one, it looked like Paddy O’Rourke lost his bearings altogether. I'd say he thought the goals were over to his left when they were actually to his right. He just thought the ball was going wide. I'll have to ask him. I definitely will be asking him!"