Westmeath should be 'easy pickings' says Mayo paper

Confidence is sky high in Mayo ahead of Saturday's 4B Qualifier against Westmeath in Croke Park, if this week's Connaught Telegraph is anything to go by.

Mayo might be Gaelic football's perennial underachievers losing seven All Ireland finals since 1989 , but according to Connaught Telegraph journalist Aiden Henry, Westmeath should be 'easy pickings' when the two sides meet at the weekend.

Although he praised the Westmeath team's first half display against Dublin in the Leinster final, the Mayo scribe believes that 'losing by 15 points in the end will not have done their confidence much good' and 'anything but a big Mayo win would be regarded as a major shock'.

'...Mayo will have it pretty comfortable against Westmeath, and the fact that the game is in Croke Park will be an added bonus,' Mr Henry wrote.
Also writing in the Connaught Telegraph, well known pundit and ex Mayo player Martin Carney also predicted an easy day at the office for the men from the west.

While he said that it would be foolish to overlook the 'power and leadership' of Ger Egan and Denis Corroon' or 'underestimate the influence' of Paul Sharry and John Heslin, 'there are too few however in Westmeath's squad capable of complementing their qualities'.

'I cannot see a team recently relegated to Division 4 of the league having the personnel, depth of panel or the required game plan to upstage Mayo at the moment," Carney wrote.

Let's hope that Tom Cribbin's men can prove these very confident commentators wrong on Saturday evening.