Castledaly and blues do battle for last four spot

Shay Murtagh Westmeath SFC Quarter-Final Preview THE crunch meeting of Castledaly and Maryland will arouse much local interest, as the two sides go head-to-head in the quarter-finals of the Westmeath SFC this coming Sunday (Cusack Park, 6.45pm). The game takes place following the meeting of Mullingar Shamrocks and Tyrrellspass in the other quarter-final (also Cusack Park, 5.15pm), and is sure to be a highly interesting affair, as the sides bid to secure a semi-final meeting against reigning champions Garrycastle. Castledaly - the 2008 county champions - secured third-place in a tough Division A, and their last-six berth, by beating Coralstown-Kinnegad by eleven points in the final group outing. First-cousins, Paul Kelly and Brendan Kelly, leading the way with four points apiece, as Derek Heavin's side notched an impressive 1-11 against their nearest challengers for that crucial third place spot. As for Maryland, they came roaring out of the blocks in Division B, winning their opening four matches (against Athlone, Mullingar Shamrocks, St Malachy's and The Downs), but their bid for straight qualification to the semi-finals was undone by St Loman's in the final group match, as they lost 1-10 to 1-6. Earlier in the year, Castledaly trounced Maryland by 13 points in the ACFL (in which Castledaly need only a point from their last league match to win the title), and Maryland manager Finbar Egan feels his side are very much underdogs on Sunday. Castledaly also enjoyed a three-point win the last time the sides met in the senior championship (at the group stage) in 2010. Egan, who has to cope without the key services of forward John Reilly (broken collarbone), said: "I feel we're massive underdogs. Castledaly hammered us in the League, and they're a very good outfit. We achieved our pre-championship ambition of getting out of the group and into the quarter-finals, but I think we're capable of going further in the competition." "I don't think our most recent form, particularly against St Loman's, did us justice, but we're going to need a massive and well-organised performance from both our defence and midfield to get anything against Castledaly. We're also hoping a few of our forwards will ease the scoring burden on Callum McCormack." Kenny Kincaid, Darren Malynn and David Reynolds have all been struggling with injuries recently, but the trio are expected to be fit enough to start on Sunday, but the loss of John Reilly is potentially a telling blow to Egan's team. Castledaly, meanwhile, left themselves needing a win in the final group game against Coralstown-Kinnegad following a topsy-turvy campaign. A narrow loss to Tyrrellspass (in a hugely entertaining game) left them with much to do in the last two rounds, but a 14-point demolition of Bunbrosna put them back on track, before they eased past an indisciplined Coralstown-Kinnegad (who had two players sent-off) to earn third-place. Castledaly emerged from Division A with the highest tally of points scored, and also a better defensive record than the top-two of Garrycastle and Tyrrellspass. Centre-half back Tommy Warburton believes anything that's come before this game (including Castledaly's heavy defeat of Maryland in the League) is entirely irrelevant to Sunday. "It doesn't matter at all what happened in the League. You can't judge championship games on what takes place months earlier in the league, when teams are missing players and so on. We know how difficult it's going to be against Maryland, they're a good team, but we're looking forward to the challenge. We're close neighbours and most our players went to school with their lads, and we all know each other well, so it's an interesting game," Tommy said. "We feel we're producing some good football, but that we're probably not consistent enough throughout the 60 minutes. We're looking to maintain our best form, or very close to it, for longer periods of matches, and hopefully we'll achieve that against Maryland. We feel we're a bit better than most people within the county give us credit for, but I suppose we haven't really got back to the level we showed in 2008 (when Castledaly won their one and only Flanagan Cup), and have failed to even reach the knockouts twice, so our critics can rightly point to that. "But we need no motivation for the Maryland game, though the prospect of playing the champions in the semi-finals is a great prize for the winners on Sunday. Garrycastle are a great team, and have been the best in Westmeath for the past ten years, and we were gutted not to beat them in the group stages. At the moment, it's Maryland we're concentrating on, and while some people think the win over Coralstown-Kinnegad wasn't great, we went about our business well, and did enough to reach the quarters," added Warburton. Warburton was at centre half-back against Coralstown-Kinnegad, but could come into manager Derek Heavin's thoughts when the Castledaly management sit down to consider how best to mark the prolific Callum McCormack, who usually operates in Maryland's full-forward line. The winner of this weekend's other quarter-final between Mullingar Shamrocks and Tyrrellspass will play St Loman's in the last four.