Maryland hope Martin can make rematch with Castledaly

FOLLOWING the drama of the drawn Westmeath SFC quarter-final between Castledaly and Maryland, the sides meet again this weekend for the eagerly awaited replay (Saturday, Cusack Park, 5.30pm). However, Maryland supporters are this week hoping that key defender Kieran Martin can shake-off a bad hand injury picked up in last weekend's Westmeath IHC semi-final, when playing for Fr Dalton's in their victory over Clonkill. Martin received a bad wound to his hand and is a major doubt for Saturday's game, and Maryland - who came back late on in the original fixture to earn a 1-10 apiece draw - won't know more on Martin's situation until scans are carried out. Maryland manager Finbar Egan, when spoken to by the Westmeath Independent on Monday evening, said Martin's situation looks precarious. "The honest answer is that I don't really know about Kieran at the minute. We're awaiting scans but his injury looks bad," said Egan. If Martin fails to make the game, he'll join John Reilly (who missed the drawn game) on the sidelines. However, Callum McCormack - who played a key role towards the finish of the drawn game, having had to leave the field earlier through concussion - is fully recovered from that incident and will lead Maryland's attack. In a further boost to Maryland, James Ganly and Enda Kincaid are expected to return to the panel after illness and injury respectively. Egan said: "We showed the last day we can compete at this level, and I think there's more in the players. Castledaly are a good team and have lots of scoring threats, and we certainly need to do better at midfield. Callum (McCormack) took a bad whack the last day, and had to come off concussed, but such was his determination to do well for Maryland, that he insisted coming back on for the last ten minutes. Thankfully, he was okay to do so, and managed to get the crucial scores, but he couldn't see his own hand in front of his face at the end of the match. That was a great show of character by Callum. Kenny Kincaid also played through injury the last day, a lot of people don't see those type of things, but the commitment and desire of the lads is fantastic. Every club has players like that. Even though Callum left the field for a long period, the likes of Tom Browne, Ronan Moran and Anthony Reynolds stood up in his absence, and we scored well when Callum was off the field. We're definitely looking forward to giving it another go on Saturday, and there most certainly won't be too much between the teams," he added. Looking back, McCormack's departure from the fray with concussion in the 15th minute (of the original tie) appeared to have scuppered the blue and whites' chances of making the last four. However, his return in the 50th minute definitely added spice to the Maryland attack, where livewire corner-forward Ronan Moran had taken on the mantle of scorer-in-chief in the Westmeath star's absence. Indeed, it was fitting that the former should set up the latter for the equalising score in third minute of added-time. For his part, Castledaly manager Derek Heavin, who appears to have no fresh injury concerns from the last day, will be disappointed that his troops did not seal their expected win first time out, and it's all to play for when the sides meet again in what will surely be another close-run contest for the right to face Garrycastle in the semi-final.