McCabe keen for Westmeath to top group as Limerick fixture is confirmed

After his Westmeath senior football team had defeated London by 13 points in Ruislip last Sunday afternoon, manager Dermot McCabe tried to sum up the game and the weekend.

“With the travel over, there are always concerns how people will react to it, but after a shaky start we grew into the game and won well in the end,” he said.

Expanding further on his troops’ nervy opening, the winning bainisteoir stated: “The weekend away probably contributed to that in that you are waiting for the game. We travelled over yesterday and lads are waiting round all morning, and are a little curtailed in their movement and what they can do.

"Lads were nervous until they settled in and got some structure and shape. It took us 13 minutes to get our first score. But for the next 55 or so, to get 26 points wasn’t too bad by plugging away.”

Commenting on some individual players who were absent, had returned from injury, and are new to the team, the Cavan man added: “You don’t have to be told how good Ray (Connellan) is in the air and he showed that straight away. It was nice to get some game time into him.

"Ronan Wallace was out today, he has a bit of an issue with his hamstring and it was too big of a risk to play him. He brings great pace to the team, so lads had to find new positions to make up for that pace. Maybe for the first 20 minutes, we lacked that bit of pace. We managed all that a good bit better in the second half.

"It was great to get game time into Jack Geoghegan also. He had been doing extremely well for us until he picked up that injury in Newry. Tadhg (Baker) is carrying on his good form with the U20s and he pitched in with a score. He’s very energetic and has been great at training. We’ll see how Ronan’s recovery goes. Hopefully, it’s not too severe. We’ve used a hell of a lot of players this year," continued the 1997 All Star.

Looking forward to the top of the table clash with Limerick - which has been confirmed for next Saturday, May 31 in Portlaoise at 2pm - McCabe said: "I think there’s huge importance in trying to top the group. You go straight to a quarter-final and you get a home game. Limerick will be in the same boat. Both teams will want to top the group.”