Fine start by Gavin’s under 20 football side
By Damien Maher
Westmeath’s under 20 footballers began their defence of the Philly McGuinness Cup in positive style as they defeated Louth (2-16 to 0-16) at Kinnegad last Saturday. Manager Damien Gavin appears to have an abundance of talent at his disposal, particularly in attack and he is satisfied to be getting competitive games into the team ahead of the Leinster Championship. They face Monaghan (in Castleblaney) next weekend in a tough second round encounter.
“It's a different brand of football, a tougher game and I'm happy it will sharpen us up for the Leinster championship in six weeks' time,” opined Gavin, pleased to be getting a competitive game against a strong Ulster opponent.
“It's about getting the right blend; we have a lot of talent to work with. We know all too well that it takes attitude and hard work, as well as talent to win, but we have good potential. I'm fairness, the midfielders were excellent; Ben (Killian) and Dylan (Murtagh) put in a great shift and that releases the forwards to play,” he remarked.
“Liam Daly was excellent when he came on; he really tightened things up in defence. Podge (Quinn) impressed at wing forward also. It was all about the dynamic of the team, really; just getting that right. We moved the ball quicker in the second half; there was a lot of soloing between the '45' and '65' in the first half and the Louth defence was very good.
In the second half we moved the ball much quicker into space and that created the openings.”
A more Westmeath would have put more points on the board Gavin felt, but the result pleased him.
“I thought we left a lot of scores behind us in the first half; we hit the post with a good goal chance. But it's the first time we have been together as a group; we had the senior guys back in today, so it was very positive, overall. To score 2-16 is very encouraging and our second half display was really promising,” he said.
“We wouldn't be happy with the number of frees we conceded in the first half; they scored a lot from frees. In fairness, we highlighted it and the boys were much-improved after the break.”