'We know we are much better than today' - Dessie Dolan
“It’s disappointing. The performance wasn’t up to par. We prepared very well for the game and we did a lot of work for it. But we’re disappointed ourselves with some of the ball we gave away and some of the opportunities that we missed.”
These initial thoughts from Dessie Dolan in Ederney last Saturday afternoon neatly summed up Westmeath’s flattering one-point defeat at the hands of Fermanagh after a galling loss which prematurely ended his troops’ chances of playing Division 2 football in 2024.
The Garrycastle man continued: “It is difficult playing away from home and it was a long trip up. There was a lot of stuff happening on the pitch as well. I know you have to expect it, but there was a lot of messing going on.
“We were five points down at half-time and maybe we could have pushed on. The wind seemed to be a bit stronger in the first half and it forced us maybe to take that extra pass. We very cheaply gave away too many balls in decent positions. On the other hand, they had some good performances around the middle, and Ultan Kelm did very well as well. They were very secure in possession and their style of play frustrated us.”
When queried about the rapid-fire brace of goals from Kevin Maguire and David Lynch which briefly looked like they might rescue the Lake County’s cause in the final quarter, the losing bainisteoir opined: “We were probably fortunate to get them to be honest, and we probably didn’t fully deserve them.”
“It wasn’t a performance we’d be happy with. It knocks the head on our promotion hopes and the lads themselves are disappointed. The big win against Antrim doesn’t mean much now. We have the Leinster championship (against Louth) in a few weeks and we know we are much better than today. It didn’t seem as if there was much energy today. The tackle count was down. There are areas of the game that we wouldn’t be happy with. But that’s football and it doesn’t go perfectly every day,” he added.
“They are good lads in the Westmeath dressing room and we’ll all put the heads down ahead of the championship,” Dolan concluded, with next Sunday’s final league game in TEG Cusack Park against already-relegated Tipperary now effectively just a useful pre-championship challenge game for both counties.