'We deserved to win in the end' – Eddie Kinsella

Better known as a referee, Eddie Kinsella has made an instant impact in his first year wearing the bainisteoir bib in Tyrrellspass, and the Laois man was understandably very pleased to have guided the ‘Tidy Town’ to another Flanagan Cup semi-final after a fine win against Mullingar Shamrocks last Sunday in TEG Cusack Park.

The 2014 All-Ireland final whistler laughed as he declared at the outset: “I’m delighted for the lads and they’re happy to be back in a semi-final. It’s a handy enough one in the semi-final!”

Looking back on the game, he reflected: “We played the first half very well, I thought. There was some good football from both sides in it, but we started the second half a bit slowly and they got into the game more, and I thought we were going to be caught. But there’s a little bit of a kick in those lads and they got some great scores. We deserved to win in the end after a great battle with a very good and well-organised Mullingar Shamrocks team who had been going very well this year. Every championship game we played this year has been a massive test for us.”

When queried about Conor Slevin’s black card late in the first half, the winning manager opined: “Enda Kelly had a fair game and I think the standard of refereeing in Westmeath is excellent, but I didn’t think it was a black card. There is a very thin line in those black card decisions between a pull down and a high tackle, between yellow cards and black cards. They outscored us by about four points to one when they had an extra man, but Conor came back in and steadied the ship. He’s a great footballer and has been for years.”

The only goal of the game proved crucial. Kinsella agreed, when he stated: “It came from a great move and Evan (Connell) buried it. He’s a great young player.”

Looking ahead briefly to a penultimate round showdown with the holders St Loman’s, Mullingar, Kinsella concluded: “It’ll be a massive test for us, but sure we’ll do our best. Ger (Egan) is gone, he’s a massive loss but the boys have stepped up, in fairness to them. Ger’s been an outstanding player for club and county for years, and he was coming back into a great bit of form. He’s been under pressure with that knee and had to get it operated on. It’s a depleted squad from last year and they’ve done great work to get back into a semi-final and, hopefully, we’ll acquit ourselves well.”

See this week's Westmeath Examiner for reports from all of the big GAA matches last weekend.