Early blitz provides the platform as St Loman's reach semi-final

Westmeath senior football champions, St Loman’s Mullingar, qualified for the Leinster Club SFC semi-final with an impressive victory over Longford counterparts Emmet Óg Killoe at Pearse Park on Sunday.

Paddy Dowdall’s troops had 10 points to spare in the end as Killoe finished with 13 men and they now move on to a meeting with Naas, who have won a hat-trick of Kildare senior titles. It promises to provide a serious test of the Mullingar men’s true credentials and they will certainly have to tighten up in defence if they are to reach another Leinster final.

Dowdall, while acknowledging the need for improvement, was pleased with how St Loman’s dictated terms from an early stage on Sunday.

“The catalyst for us was the first 20 minutes. We wanted to really impose ourselves on the game, and we did. We went 1-6 to 0-1 ahead after about 20 minutes and the lads kept pushing on, in fairness,” he observed.

“They took their foot off the pedal around the 20th minute mark, but they were after putting in such a huge effort. Overall, in that first half, we did really well.”

Compared to the Westmeath final and the Leinster first round game against Wexford’s Shelmaliers, Sunday’s encounter was a very open affair and the Longford men struggled to get to grips with the likes of Ronan O’Toole, who scored an early goal, and John Heslin.

“That’s the first time this year that we have been allowed to play football. Both teams wanted to play football today,” remarked Dowdall, who felt his side could have been more ruthless in front of goal after their terrific start.

“After that first 20 minutes we missed a couple of easy chances. It’s something for us to work on down the line,” he said.

St Loman’s led by 1-11 to 0-3 at the interval and while the home side had the aid of a lively breeze in the second half, the game looked all but over as a contest. Dowdall said it was about keeping focused.

“We had to go in at half-time and press the reset button: obviously we didn’t want them to get back into the game, so it was important that we got the first score (of the second half) on the board. After that we just kept clocking up the scores,” he said.

While his side were comfortable winners, almost facile at times, Dowdall is acutely aware that the semi-final will provide a very different proposition for the Westmeath champions.

“We have a lot of work to do. We have Naas in the semi-final in two weeks time; they scored 2-12 today. It’s a really good Naas team. They will be gunning for us, no more than we will for them,” he remarked.

A plus for St Loman’s will be having the game in TEG Cusack Park and Dowdall is hoping the home crowd will play its part. “It’s great to have the game in Cusack Park: to have home advantage, know the surroundings and have the home crowd as well,” he enthused.

Another positive for the Westmeath champions is that they picked up no injuries in Sunday’s victory.