No comment from Flanagan on Westmeath job

Pat Flanagan refused to be drawn on his future as Westmeath manager following his side's championship exit at the hands of Derry in last Saturday's second round qualifier.In late April, Flanagan was appointed as interim manager for the duration of this year's championship, after a player coup led to the resignation of Brendan Hackett. It was decided to review the position when Westmeath's championship campaign came to an end, and the matter will be discussed by the county board in the coming weeks.After last Saturday night's 0-13 to 1-7 defeat to Derry at a rain-lashed Cusack Park, Flanagan was asked would he be at the helm for the 2011 season."I don't know. When we got involved, we said we'd just run the course until the end of the championship. I absolutely don't know what's going to happen in the future," the Clara man responded."Our total focus was on the match today, it was on nothing else, as it was for the Wicklow match and as it was for the Louth match. What happens in the future is going to happen in the future; today is not a day for that. We came here hoping to beat Derry, hoping to give Westmeath football a lift. I know we didn't win but I'd like to think that the passion and desire we showed in the last 20 minutes, and the amount of effort the players put in, has hopefully given our supporters something to go away with and be happy about.""I came in just to work with the lads for the 6th of June (Leinster quarter-final against Wicklow). When I met with the county board, that's what I said I'd do … and what happens in the future is entirely up to the county board. I definitely didn't look beyond today."Nobody realises the amount of effort and the amount of work that those guys (the players) put in. They bursted a gut in the last eight, nine weeks to try and achieve, to try and get success. It's a little bit heartbreaking to see grown men in there who are near tears. They absolutely 'died' for Westmeath and it just didn't happen today and sometimes that happens, you don't get the scores that you deserve. Hopefully Westmeath football will start moving back up the ladder again and get out of Division 3 next year and put in a good performance in the Leinster championship," continued Flanagan.When pressed as to whether he would be interested in continuing as manager if he was proposed for the position, Flanagan remained non-committal."That's not for today and I'm trying to cut you short. Our total focus was on today. After losing last Sunday week, we put a huge effort to see if we could get a result here today."Flanagan said he "absolutely" enjoyed working with the Westmeath players since he took up the post of manager on an interim basis."They are a brilliant group of fellas. No matter what they were asked to do in training, they did - there wasn't a moan or a cry. I'm not sure people realise the amount of effort that a young man puts in for Gaelic football any more. Certainly Westmeath people should be very proud of the effort that those guys put in, they shouldn't just judge them on the result today," he said.As for the last Saturday's match itself, Flanagan rued his charges' inability to convert the many scoring chances they created in the last quarter."It's extremely disappointing, you can't fault our players, they worked like Trojans out there, kept going till the bitter end. We just didn't seem to get any breaks. There were a number of occasions where we probably could have got close in frees that might have brought us a bit closer, that didn't happen. The bottom line is that we kept battling away … ten wides in the second half sort of sums it up for us," he reflected ruefully.Youthful substitute Callum McCormack almost scored a second goal for Westmeath at a time when they were just two points between the sides - a green flag at that stage could have led to a different result."We continued to make chances. Callum came in and produced on the day, he probably would have been part of the set-up a lot sooner only he was doing his Leaving Cert. That shows the quality of player that's coming on in Westmeath," said Flanagan. "On another occasion that ball would have drifted past the goalkeeper but today getting scores was very, very difficult. Derry, to their credit, packed the defence and made us work extremely hard to get opportunities.""If we played as well a fortnight ago (v Louth in the Leinster semi-final) or played with the same passion, we probably wouldn't be playing here today, we'd be playing tomorrow in Croke Park (in the Leinster final)."It's difficult under conditions like that to keep a shape about the team. Derry, in the second half in particular, crowded out the defence and made it very, very difficult for us. Having said that, we missed three 45s and a couple of other opportunities which normally would have gone over the bar under better conditions."Although Flanagan was cagey about his future involvement with Westmeath, his emphasis on the talent coming through in the county suggested that he would relish the opportunity to work with the players again next season."There's plenty of talent coming through in Westmeath. Obviously they were beaten in a Leinster U-21 final this year and beaten in a semi-final the previous year by a team that won the Leinster final, so there is plenty of talent coming through and you can't rule out those guys with experience either. Every one of them put in a 100 per cent since I got involved eight or nine weeks ago and you couldn't fault their effort. The future is bright if people just get together and build from there," said the former Tyrrellspass manager.