PREVIEW | Limerick welcome Meath in make or break National Football League tie

As the only team in the league without a win, Limerick will be in desperate need to pick up points against the Royals.

The permutations will be well known for Limerick this Sunday where they know anything other than a win could end their survival hopes in Division 2 of the National Football League.

Meath are the visitors to the TUS Gaelic Grounds and they can ensure safety with the desired result in round five of the League. Limerick will remain safe for another week if Clare and Kildare also lose but will need to beat both in the final rounds and hope they don’t pick up points in their other contests.

It’s a tall order but a win on Sunday could kick-start Limerick’s revival with six points still on offer against teams in a similar vein of form. Meath, despite their whirlwind start to the campaign, have been beaten in back-to-back weeks. Those defeats came against Derry and Louth under similar scorelines to when Limerick faced those counties.

Derry had 12 points to spare against the Shannonsiders and eleven when faced with Meath. Conversely, the margin of defeat for Limerick against Louth was just two while Meath were on the wrong side of a three-point defeat. And both will come into the game on the back of successive defeats with Meath’s win over Clare coming a month to the day when they take to the Ennis Road.

However, Limerick’s most recent defeat, the 24-point drubbing at the hands of Cork will leave confidence low in the Treaty camp ahead of the must-win tie. The Rebels dominated in all sectors to leave Limerick stranded at the bottom of division 2 with the lowest scoring difference in the entirety of the league.

The only team in the league without a win, Limerick will be in desperate need to pick up points against the Royals who could be dragged into relegation danger if they were to lose a third successive game.

Division 2 points, points difference and remaining fixtures

• Cork: 4pts | +31 | Clare (A), Louth (A), Derry (H)
• Louth: 4pts | +1 | Kildare (H), Cork (H), Dublin (A)
• Meath: 4pts | -6 | Limerick (A), Dublin (H), Kildare (A)
• Kildare: 2pts | -27 | Louth (A), Limerick (A), Meath (H)
• Clare: 2pts | -5 | Cork (H), Derry (A), Limerick (H)
• Limerick: 0pts | -47 | Meath (H), Kildare (H), Clare (A)

While the positives were few and far between in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, there was a first start for Brian Donovan after his goalscoring cameo off the bench in the loss to Louth. Cillian Fahy kicked three points from defence while Tony McCarthy, Iain Corbett and Michael Donovan all got up the field to get on the scoresheet.

It is at the other end that Limerick looked porous and they will have to be on guard of a Royals outfit that have shown a penchant for goals under Colm O’Rourke, hitting the net in each of their games thus far. In their first game, they plundered three against Cork, bettering that in the 4-8 to 0-16 win over Clare. Louth and Derry restricted them to a single green flag with Meath losing both.

And that is where Limerick will look to target the Leinster side who have conceded a healthy amount in their games thus far. Clare and Louth both scored on 16 occasions against Meath while it was 17 for Derry and 19 for the Rebels. Limerick are yet to better the 1-13 scored against Louth but Sunday would be a timely occasion to do so.

If they can up their scoring slightly and tighten up at the back, there is room for optimism. Anything else and the writing could be on the wall.