McCabe insists Westmeath will be up for Meath challenge
Gerry Buckley
Despite suffering arguably the most galling of the four defeats to date in Division 2 of the National Football League, ironically against his native Cavan, Westmeath manager Dermot McCabe remained positive when talking to the media after the incident-packed match in TEG Cusack Park last Sunday afternoon.
The losing bainisteoir honed in on pre-match events as the first key event of a pulsating afternoon in Mullingar. He opined: “The toss can be a big thing now. They won the toss and opted to go against the wind. A 12-point lead would have been grand at half-time if it was 15-a-side. We had a goal chance in the first half and didn’t take it, and we probably needed to be 14 or 16 ahead.”
A key incident in the 33rd minute hugely affected the contest. McCabe concurred, as follows: “We already had a player booked (Jack Geoghegan). The Cavan player (James Smith) was probably wise enough to engage with him, so the two got booked and our man got sent off. That’s just a bit of experience and Cavan have a wealth of experience, and even the players they had coming on as subs have huge years of experience. I would have been confident that we would have controlled the game with a full complement of players. We probably lacked a bit of experience when we went two men down.”
Despite the four losses and the huge threat of relegation to Division 3, there is unanimity that the men in maroon and white are playing patches of outstanding attacking football. When queried about this, McCabe explained: “From talking to the lads early doors, they wanted to get scores and we tried to put that shape on things. It’s just getting that fine balance. It’s very hard with a gale force wind blowing to defend with 11 players when you’re up against lads like Gearóid McKiernan who can kick two-pointers for fun.
“But those are the rules now and that’s what people wanted. We had calmed things down a bit and it was back to 0-20 to 0-15 when they got the goal. Their momentum had slowed a little bit before that goal. Unfortunately, a turnover led to the goal. We probably needed a goal ourselves in the first half. They were a bigger and more physical team and won a lot of possession in the second half. Hopefully, we will retain our shape a bit better next week,” he added.
There is no time for self-pity with an improving Meath team coming to TEG Cusack Park next Sunday. The Westmeath manager had no doubts that his troops would be up for that challenge, stating: “You would like to think that Westmeath will get motivated for Meath. If results go our way, we probably still have opportunities. The lads have rallied well from the start. There were a lot of lads missing from last year, but we knew that and every day is a learning now. The effort has been great and we’ll put the heads down and we’ll work hard again for the game next week. We want to win games. Tight games are no good to us on the table. We have to learn from our failings.”
McCabe continues to be short the services of some injured players, and he concluded with an update in this regard: “We have a few injuries and, unfortunately, it looks like we won’t have them back in a week. Lads will be stiff and sore after today, but I don’t think we have any extra injuries after today’s game.”