An opportunity of redemption for Westmeath

AT FIRST glance, you could conclude that the odds are stacked against Westmeath footballers in O’Connor Park tomorrow afternoon.

Leinster champions five years ago and the last county to beat Dublin in the province, they failed to win a game in the league and have been beset by injuries.

Against that background, and given that the Garden County have a game under their belts, goalkeeper Gary Connaughton agrees the Midlanders face a tough campaign opener.

It’s the first clash of the counties in the provincial championship since 1995, when Westmeath lost despite the advantage of a first-round game against Wexford.

It wasn’t until 2001 — the inaugural year of the qualifiers — that the county showed real signs of making progress (under Luke Dempsey) and three years later Páidi Ó Sé worked the oracle when he guided them to a first Leinster title.

Connaughton finds it hard to come to terms with the fact they have achieved so little in the intervening years.

“Looking back over the last few years it has been disappointing that we didn’t build on our success in 2004 and win another Leinster. Last year we did make great progress, but it didn’t happen for us. We left the Dublin game behind us in Croke Park. But we should have made more progress.”

One reason for the failure to capitalise on the Leinster success four years ago was the age profile of the side. Many of that Leinster championship winning team were coming to the end of their playing days and there wasn’t a production line of talent waiting to step into their boots.

Connaughton agrees: “It meant that even if experienced lads weren’t playing that well we had to go with them because the young lads coming through just were not good enough. Having said that, we have good players on the team and it’s just a matter of having them in form the whole time. “This season’s NFL campaign was a disaster, losing all seven rounds and finishing with a 5-22 to 0-10 hammering from Dublin. But there were mitigating factors. An injury crisis went from bad to worse through spring and confidence began to wane. However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, according to the veteran netminder.

“We should have beaten Tyrone, but we lost it at the last minute after letting in a goal. After that, we went down to Tralee to play Kerry. I’d say we were almost beaten before the ball was thrown in because a lot of players didn’t feel we could win. Westmeath played in the U21 championship the day before, but we still had to play four or five from that team because we were missing so many.”

After the embarrassment of the Dublin defeat, the players had a few weeks with their clubs before they knuckled down to preparations for tomorrow’s game. But, once more the injury bugbear reared its ugly head.

“We haven’t had a settled team all year — even in challenge matches in the last few weeks. We played Cavan and Michael Ennis and Dessie Dolan got injured. We have Martin Flanagan coming back, David Healy is home about a month after having been away for the year and he has played very little football.

“Dessie is having a lot of problems with his knee and is away off being 100% fit. All these are key players we had over the last few years. On the positive side, Denis Glennon has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years and is one of the top forwards in the country. We’re hopeful he can deliver. And there are other players who have experience, the likes of Fergal Wilson. We’re hoping they might do a good job.”