Gerry Buckley: Promotion hopes still alive for Westmeath county teams

Make-or-break Sunday ahead for both of Westmeath’s senior teams” was this columnist’s headline for last week’s ramblings, and if the typesetter were to replace ‘Sunday’ with ‘weekend’ the headline would be equally relevant for today’s newspaper.

At the time of writing, it is unclear whether the hurlers will play Kerry in the Division 2A semi-final in TEG Cusack Park next Saturday or Sunday. Incidentally, the Lake County have home advantage, despite already facing the Kingdom in Mullingar in the round robin section, by virtue of finishing second in the six-team group, while next weekend’s opponents ended up in third place after losing two days ago to finalists-in-waiting Down.

Early reports from spies in St Conleth’s Park suggested that Joe Fortune’s troops were in trouble against the Lilywhites, but a red card to Gerry Keegan helped the visitors to find their feet and ultimately emerge victorious by 1-22 to 0-14, a creditable result and one which sets up a penultimate round clash with the men in the famous green and gold hooped jerseys. Of course, it will be an improved Kerry team which travels to the midlands next weekend, with the strong Kilmoyley contingent back on board after being club-tied for the February 6 contest which their maroon and white-clad hosts won by 3-15 to 1-15.

Division 2A has been a strange section this year. Very few would have predicted, for example, that Carlow – who comfortably defeated Westmeath on February 13 – would not even make the top three. It is a new departure for 2022 that three teams remain in contention after the round robin matches. The shadow boxing is over now and it is winner-takes-all contests over the next two weekends. Fortune’s men have blown hot and cold this year, but they surely have two big games in them now to get back to Division 1 for 2023, with five mammoth challenges in the Leinster championship just round the corner to further focus all involved.

Yours truly has followed Westmeath football teams with a passion for close on six decades now (and that excludes very early years sitting on my late parents’ laps at games, I assume), but can never remember seeing the three main county sides in competitive action over a four-day period. However, from St Patrick’s Day to Sunday, I had this privilege in recent days and a win, loss and draw were the respective outcomes for our U20s, minors and seniors. All three could/should have been wins, but the draw (the flagship side v Fermanagh) could easily have been a horror defeat – none of us had the slightest doubt in live action but that Sean Quigley’s disallowed ‘point’ was a valid score.

The highlight of the U20s’ noteworthy win in the Philly McGuinness Cup was not the actual game, but a first look at the mirage that is the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence in Bekan. The word ‘mirage’ is deliberately used as the wonderful facility is really in the middle of nowhere. It is an enormous achievement for John Prenty and co. Pardon the old hobby horse coming up again (and it won’t be the last time!), but first-time Westmeath visitors like myself had umpteen conversations about our county being so, so, so far behind when it comes to the availability of training pitches and the like. Let’s hope that the powers-that-be will sort out this urgent matter in the very foreseeable future.

Incidentally, the varying county numbers in the four provinces comes sharply into focus when one considers the championship aspirations of the two fine teams in action next Thursday. Sligo are straight into a Connacht semi-final against Roscommon, while Damien Gavin’s troops must defeat both Wicklow (a tall order) and Dublin (a gigantic order) to make the Leinster penultimate round!

As is reported elsewhere in this paper, Vinny Cox’s U17s were very wasteful when losing out to a very beatable Laois outfit in Portlaoise on Saturday. The manager spoke after the game about “five missed goal opportunities” – and he was not exaggerating. He was also correct when opining that Laois had two scoring chances in the second half – and they both led to goals. All is not lost for the minors, but less profligacy is essential when Louth come to town in early April.

The seniors got one goal against Fermanagh, David Lynch scoring a fine three-pointer in the first half when Jack Cooney’s met looked well on top. However, the miss by the St Malachy’s man with time almost up has to be categorized in the ‘howler’ bracket, with David Giles and Alex Gardiner also spurning glorious earlier chances of raising green flags in one-on-one scenarios with the youthful Erneside ‘keeper, Sean McNally.

Unlike their small ball counterparts, Westmeath’s destiny is now out of their hands. It has to be conceded that having dropped five points from the 12 on offer to date, they are somewhat fortunate to be still in contention for promotion to Division 2. All they can do themselves on Sunday in Corrigan Park is win their own match and look for favours from Fermanagh (ironically) and/or Wicklow (shock winners against Longford two days ago) v Limerick and Louth respectively.

A self-confessed new Westmeath fan rang me on Sunday night, appalled by the lack of home support in TEG Cusack Park. She got my standard response which included the term ‘wishy washy’ quite a bit! Sadly, she won’t see too many WH cars en route to Belfast on Sunday. It would be nice to think that the few loyal handfuls who do travel will return home in great form, both at what they have just witnessed and what they have heard about results from Aughrim and Limerick as well. It’s another gigantic order!

Westmeath and Antrim have previously met on 15 occasions in the National Football League. The Lake County has won six times, the Glensmen eight, and one match was drawn, as follows:

16/12/1979, Belfast, Antrim 1-14, Westmeath 0-5

3/2/1980, Castletown Geoghegan, Westmeath 0-7, Antrim 0-7 (draw)

15/11/1981, Cusack Park, Antrim 0-9, Westmeath 0-4

6/11/1983, Cusack Park, Antrim 1-7, Westmeath 0-8

2/3/1986, Kinnegad, Antrim 1-7, Westmeath 0-8

22/2/1987, Belfast, Antrim 2-11, Westmeath 0-9

14/2/1988, Kinnegad, Antrim 1-9, Westmeath 1-2

23/10/1988, Belfast, Antrim 1-9, Westmeath 0-5

30/10/1994, Belfast, Westmeath 2-7, Antrim 0-7

1/12/1996, Cusack Park, Westmeath 1-13, Antrim 1-5

15/3/1998, Cusack Park, Westmeath 1-12, Antrim 0-9

1/11/1998, Belfast, Westmeath 3-10, Antrim 1-12

9/4/2000, St Loman’s (Mullingar), Antrim 0-12, Westmeath 1-7

16/2/2003, Belfast, Westmeath 0-15, Antrim 2-7

12/3/2006, Cusack Park, Westmeath 3-10, Antrim 1-12