An upbeat Brendan Hackett feels Westmeath deserved a draw

"A draw would have been a fair result and it was a cruel way for us to lose." So said Westmeath senior football manager, Brendan Hackett in reference to his side's agonising third successive National League defeat in Navan last Saturday night.However, unlike the two previous defeats, particularly the hammering from Armagh in Crossmaglen, there were many positives emanating from a floodlit Páirc Tailteann and the Monaghan native was at pains to hone in on these: "There's a re-building going on and there will be a bit of short-term pain while we put the team together, but you saw a huge shift today overall, not alone with the under-21s earlier but tonight also. Twice we came from six points down to actually lead the game. In terms of performance, the mental attitude was absolutely super out there."Match referee, Jimmy White's decision to play on after Paul Bannon's late, late free went narrowly wide surprised virtually everybody in attendance, as the stipulated injury-time of two minutes had elapsed, allowing Stephen Bray the chance to snatch a dramatic winner. However, Hackett was reluctant to made an issue of this. "Ah, listen little things sometimes turn games," he said. "Meath definitely had two frees closer than Paul Bannon's that they missed. Both teams were under huge pressure at that stage and it's easy for us standing here." Also, Kieran Gavin appeared to be fouled prior to Bray's winner, but again Hackett was not overly bemoaning his troops' bad luck: "Look, there were incidents on both sides and there were a lot of errors from both sides."The evergreen Michael Ennis has served his county with distinction both in defence and attack for more than a decade and his 1-2 from play in the second half almost swung the game in Westmeath's favour. Brendan Hackett praised the Ballinagore man and a few of his colleagues for the Lake County's terrific fightback: "Mick had a great second half and so had a lot of others, including the guys (Stephen Bracken and Gary Flanagan) who came in to midfield and did a great job. I was smiling when Mick scored two points with his left foot. Philip Gilsenan came in and won a couple of great balls. So overall I think our subs made a huge difference and they changed the game compared to how it was going in the first half."Sadly, the bottom line from Navan is that Westmeath are still pointless in Division Two, but Hackett remains upbeat that a drop to Division Three can be avoided: "We've a couple of big games coming up and if we perform like that again I'm confident about the results. You have to concentrate on the team playing with that amount of heart. That's all you can ask them to do." He was very keen to talk only of players who did play for Westmeath, rather than the high-profile absent duo of Dessie Dolan and Denis Glennon, curtly replying when asked about what a reporter called 'the two prodigal sons': "Our focus is on who we have. In this world, you concentrate on what you have, not what you haven't got."Overall, last Saturday has to be considered a progressive day for football in Westmeath and Hackett further praised his under-21 side, a matter of hours after their outstanding win over Meath in Cusack Park: "In their own right, they're a team that performed very well. Again, they came from behind a couple of times, particularly in the first half. People will look at the 2-14 we scored, but remember Meath didn't score for 25 minutes of the second half. Our performance was built on defending, not just attacking."Unquestionably, the under-21s' win was very timely, particularly as Hackett pointed out that "the Leinster-winning team of 2004 is coming to its natural end. That happens in every county in the country. We still have people like Damien Healy, Mick Ennis and Donal O'Donoghue. They're the type of people who are leaders. We're here for three years and it's not all going to happen in the first six months. In terms of three years and where I hoped to be, it's absolutely fine."Starting with the visit of old rivals Laois to Cusack Park next Sunday, Westmeath Gaels will be hoping to see tangible rewards in the league points table as the natural follow-up to a very positive day last Saturday, both in Mullingar and Navan.