Westmeath must learn lessons

Westmeath manager Tomás Ó Flatharta was in a somewhat sombre post-match mood after his charges had suffered a 14-point hammering at the hands of Derry in National Football Leaguer Division One clash. 'We were no match for Derry in the second half,' conceded Ó Flatharta. 'It"s very disappointing, we thought we might get something out of the day. In the first half, the first 20 minutes, we might have been in it a bit, but they pulled away from us from then on,' the Kerryman stated. When it was put to him that the fitter team had won, he concurred, saying: 'I suppose the team that"s on the ball all the time always look fitter. We didn"t have the ball that much. Yes, our fitness at the moment is not where it should be.' On a day when the handful of travelling supporters were struggling to come up with positives from a somewhat insipid display, the best Ó Flatharta could muster was: 'When we played the ball in early to the lads inside, Tommy (McDaniel) and Denis (Glennon), that worked for us, but I think we stopped doing it after a while. There were a lot of lateral passes and back passes and bad passes around the middle of the field and we lost possession as a result of it. These are things we need to work on but there"s an awful lot for us to learn from today.' The former Kilmacud Crokes player is also in charge of the Westmeath under-21 side who demolished a weak Offaly side on Saturday week last. When queried as to whether any of that side could expect promotion to the senior squad, Tomás stated: 'Well I think we have five or six of them at the moment and we will be keeping a close eye on them. Their focus is the U-21 championship and some of them are performing fairly well there.' The Lake County side gained national headlines in 2008 for their miserly defence, but last year"s average concession rate has already been doubled in the two league games to date (Galway and Derry), and the manager acknowledged this. 'That"s true. We let in an awful lot of scores today and a lot of it is coming from around the middle where we are not winning possession. When that"s not happening it"s very difficult for a full-back line to defend. A lot of those, we were winning them last year.' Other than Francis Boyle, who had to cry off with a back injury, Tomás is not expecting any more players to return for the Mayo game on Sunday, March 8. If fit, one or both of the county"s veteran midfielders, David O"Shaughnessy and Martin Flanagan, would undoubtedly bolster that problem area. However, for the moment Westmeath fans are quite entitled to view the remaining five league fixtures with a degree of trepidation.