Pat Flanagan rues inability to retain good possession

Shortly after his Westmeath charges lost by two points to Louth in last Sunday's Leinster senior football championship semi-final in Croke Park, Pat Flanagan faced the assembled media and could not conceal his disappointment."We didn't play to 100 per cent of our ability right throughout the game and it was only in the last 15 minutes that we got stuck into it," he said.We gave away too much early ball in the first half. We didn't keep enough possession and we were penalised big-time for it."Despite the losers only playing in fits and starts, a superbly-taken goal from substitute Martin Flanagan with five minutes of normal time remaining almost turned the tie in the Lake County's favour. His namesake, Pat regretted that the Tyrrellspass veteran was carrying an injury into the game: "Had Martin been fit to play from the start, it would have made a big difference. He hasn't trained since the Wicklow match and you can see the value of a player like him in the full forward line. Hopefully we can get him back for a fortnight's time and we'll see where we go from there. When Denis Glennon pointed, there was just a point in it and we were going forward and we were robbed and it ended up as a point at the far end. That happened too often today. We lost possession cheaply."With Donal O'Donoghue clearly struggling at full back, Michael Ennis was moved back to man the square at the start of the second half, and later John Keane was introduced for the same role.When the bainisteoir was asked did he regret not bringing on the two-time All-Star earlier, he responded: "The problem John had is that he twisted an ankle last week and he missed out on a challenge match against Limerick, and he's only back in a couple of weeks. So it was very difficult to put him straight back in. Having said that, when he went in, he did well enough."To most observers, Louth appeared the fitter team and the fact that a number of high-profile Westmeath players rejoined the panel very recently meant they missed the winter and spring grind under Brendan Hackett. However, Flanagan refused to use this as an excuse, stating: "Westmeath is a small county and needs to compete from the very beginning. It's hard to come in and turn things round completely. But that's not an excuse for what happened today. We still had enough ball to win if we had to use it properly. We did well against Wicklow and we took the plaudits, so there are no excuses today that those lads weren't in before now."When asked whether he felt Westmeath would have "the stomach for the Qualifiers" - they were pitted against Derry in last Monday morning's draw - the Clara man opined: "Look, there are an awful lot of dejected individuals in the dressing room now. We're only together for the last eight weeks. It's very difficult to assess the whole situation after just walking off the pitch. They're all big strong men in there and they're all willing individuals. They all want to play for Westmeath and when we get them back on Tuesday night that's the way we'll go. The Louth goal was a huge blow to us and it could have been a point at the other end and fellows find it very hard to pick it up after that."One man who won't feature against the Oak Leaf County is the recently-returned defender-cum-attacker, Derek Heavin, who suffered a serious knee injury after only 20 minutes. His loss was crucial, according to Flanagan: "Derek was getting more and more into the game. He was after winning a number of balls on that side and we could have done with his experience. He will be a major loss in the Qualifiers."As for Louth's chances of beating Meath to win a first provincial crown in 53 years (when Dermot O'Brien and his merry men went on to lift the Sam Maguire Cup), Flanagan praised the winners for their recent displays: "Louth are after clocking up two big scores and they are very difficult to break down as well. They were superb at the back by times. They're on a roll and the momentum is with them and all they have to do is carry it forward."