Westmeath's Ruth Kearney sets up an attack during last Sunday's game, with Kerry's Aoife Lyons looking to make an intervention.

Flanagan praises ladies' never say die attitude

After watching his side come within seconds of beating one of the true giants of ladies football, Westmeath manager Martin Flanagan admitted that he wasn't sure if was a point one or a point lost.

However, speaking to the Westmeath Examiner after the game, one thing that the Tyrrellspass club man was definite about was his admiration for his young charges and the way they fought their way back into last Sunday's TESCO HomeGrown Ladies' NFL Division 2 game against Kerry.

"At the start of the game if you had offered me a point at the start of the game I would have taken it," he said. They were unbelievable. I'm not going to say that they surprised me every week, but they keep putting it in there every week."

With the team within touching distance of a place in the semi-finals in their first year in the division, Flanagan says that his team are confident of putting in a performance no matter who they are up against.

"We want to win every game that we're playing. At the end of the year we'll see where that takes us. If we can top this division and get promoted to division that would be unbelieveable but we are just taking it game by game."

According to the manager, the secret to Westmeath's blistering start to life in Division 2 is down to one thing - hard work.

"I can't say we are ahead of where we want to be, because this is where Westmeath want to be," Flanagan said. "They are just an unbelievable bunch of players. They give everything every week and this is their rewards."

With two weekends off until fellow table toppers Galway come to Mullingar, Flanagan says that the team will continue to work hard to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.

"We have three tough games coming next with Galway first, then Clare and Kildare. They are at home. Hopefully we can get back in here (in Cusack Park).

"There was a good enough crowd in here today and hopefully we can get a few more in because they are a credit to their county."