Having scored a remarkable major in the National League victory in Navan last season, the 23-year-old bagged a first half brace during Saturday night’s championship triumph, turning in a man-of-the-match display.
Indeed, it was an outing to remember for the Louth Villager who spoke highly of the Wee county’s committed support after the match.
“This is what you play football for,” Lennon said.
“The atmosphere in Inniskeen, a really tight venue, against Meath, it’s what you dream of as a kid.
“The atmosphere seems to be getting better with each game. I said to a few of my family and friends that I’d never heard a roar like the one we got going in at half-time of the Leinster final and it seemed to have got better as the game went on here as well.
“This has been a long time coming for Louth. It probably means more to some of the other lads who have lost to them in the past. It was the first time I’ve played Meath in the championship and just my second time but you can never get used to these derby games.
“The atmosphere was incredible, the Louth support is massive and and it’s always nice to come out on the right side of it. Hopefully we get the same again in Clones on Sunday.”
The speedy wing-back sustained a “dead calf” in the early stages of last weekend’s 10-point success and had to receive treatment from team physio Mick Fanning before returning to the action in time to take control of Ciarán Keenan’s flick down, carrying possession through and confidently convert to the net.
“I definitely didn’t want to come off and tried to play through it,” he added. “Mick got a bit of deep heat into it and I kept moving.
“Sam’s goal really got us going and for my first goal, I nearly wasn’t ready for it but ‘Kiki’ forced me to go for it. It was a great bit of creativity from him and the second one luckily came off the post and I capitalised on it.
“It set us up nicely because it’s hard to get points against Meath. The wind was tricky enough so it was the goals that saw us across the line.”
Lennon hailed goalkeeper Niall McDonnell as “the best shot-stopper I’ve ever seen” but felt the entire team made a contribution to holding Meath to just nine points, with memories of Louth’s second period collapse in Navan during February’s National League meeting fresh in mind.
“We spoke at half-time about being in this position during the league game so we really made sure that we were sharp in the first 10 minutes of the second half and kept it tight. You never know with this group, it’s a really competitive group and points difference could become a factor.
“We took some learning from the league game because there is quality in that Meath team with Mathew Costello and Jack O’Connor coming in. We had to be fully aware of that quality and we were.
“But the last couple of years have got us ready for this. Last year, we didn’t win any games in the All-Ireland but we had the Leinster final as well and we’re constantly learning. Grimesy (Conor Grimes) said it last year, every day is a learning day for this group and we’re learning so much from each other in each game.
“Last year’s All-Ireland has stood to us hugely and the Leinster final. We’re well prepped. We’ve probably faced everything we could face at this stage and we take every scenario in our stride.
“We really honed in on not taking the eye off the ball for this game. We saw last year how important the first game was and Meath had plenty of weeks to just focus on us. We knew they’d be prepped for us but we took it in our stride, were well prepped and we’re looking forward to Monaghan now.”
