Ó Flatharta calls on players

Tomás Ó Flatharta has called on his Westmeath squad to remain united after last Sunday"s defeat to Donegal consigned them to relegation from Division 1 of the Allianz NFL. With a sixth consecutive defeat confirming Westmeath"s demotion to Division 2 for next season, Ó Flatharta is already turning his attention to the Leinster championship 'We have gone back down and that is disappointing. We had only one year up here (Division 1), the games didn"t really go our way, I suppose,' the Westmeath manager said last Sunday. 'In today"s game, we were in the game for good periods, especially coming up to half-time when we pulled it back, and in the second half we were still there. But the key difference between the two sides was that we had a few scoring chances and we didn"t take them, whereas at the other end they used their experience and got those scores, and pulled away from us in the end. We have a lot of young lads here there at the moment, compared to Donegal; they have a lot of experienced guys.' 'It is a tough day for us, but it it"s very important that we all stick together and not start blaming anybody. We have to stay united as a team. We have the championship to look forward to in about nine or ten weeks" time. We have a lot of young lads in this year, and hopefully they"re learning from all these games and hopefully they"ll bring that into the championship,' continued the Westmeath boss. 'From now on, we"re just preparing for the championship, we"re playing either Wicklow or Longford on June 13. We"ve a lot of time to prepare for that and we"d be hoping that a few lads who"ve been out injured for a long time would be back for that,' added Ó Flatharta. Dessie Dolan, Martin Flanagan, Fergal Wilson and Donal O"Donoghue all remained unavailable last weekend due to injury. O"Donoghue had been considered the most likely to return to action in the last league game away to Dublin on Sunday week, although Fergal Wilson did come on as a substitute for Tubberclair in a Division 2 league game against Maryland last weekend. While Westmeath are doomed to relegation, last Sunday"s victory means Donegal could still escape the trap-door. Commenting on last Sunday"s game, Donegal manager John Joe Doherty said: 'In fairness to Westmeath, they were not going to lie down when they had a fighting chance of staying up as well, but maybe the wee bit of composure that we showed in the second half made the difference between the two teams.' 'The (Westmeath) goal came at a bad time and to be honest I felt there was a bit of a nudge in the back as well. Westmeath were hanging in there, we didn"t put them away ... they"re a typical dogged Leinster team, they"re probably lacking a bit of confidence at the minute. But I"ve no doubt they"ll be back in the summer time and, you know, I wouldn"t lack to be meeting them in the championship,' added Doherty.