McHugh: 'We put everything into that game'

Speaking to GAA Plus after the Monaghan game on Sunday, Westmeath manager Mark McHugh said his team “put everything into that game”.

“I think just towards the end there, we ran out of a wee bit of steam. You know, we put everything into this game. Ray, not having Ray – he even came on there at the end and he caught a few balls around the middle, and I think it goes to show, if we'd had him for the whole game, it might have been a different story.

“But we have no complaints, we were beaten by the better team today.

“It’s been a long campaign. It’s been two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, extra time, extra time, extra time, and then the week break.

“I suppose it was just difficult – getting the bodies right, patching them up, we’re probably playing with five or six injuries out there but that’s not an excuse.

“Monaghan, I’m sure, are in the same boat, so fair play to them and I wish them all the best. They’re a lovely team to watch and they play really good football.

”Good luck to Gabriel in the quarter-final next week.”

INTERVIEWER: ‘Were you disappointed you weren’t more ahead at half-time? Three two-point frees and they hit five two-pointers in that first half, that kept them right in it.’

MCHUGH: “It did, it did. Our discipline probably cost us a wee bit, and I thought some of them maybe had been harsh. If you look at the games last night, there have been a lot more go and I just thought maybe two of them anyway could have been let go, but they weren’t.

“We knew the danger Rory Began possesses on free-kicks and he doesn’t miss, [no matter] how far it was out the field – he doesn’t miss. So, you know, that’s on us.

“Our discipline cost us. But we went in level at half-time, and yet we had whatever wee bit of a breeze that was out there the second half.

“But Monaghan just came with a fierce energy at the start of that second half. Stephen O’Hanlon especially caused us a lot of bother. We tried different men on him and he was just too fast.

“Sometimes you have to tip a hat to somebody and we’ve tipped a hat to Monaghan in that second half.

“Now we reflect on a season. It’s been a great season. It doesn’t feel like that right now because we’ve lost, and we don’t like losing.

“But, ultimately, the Leinster campaign we went through probably caught up with us there today.

INTERVIEWER: ‘Particularly the last 15 or so minutes, you could tell you’ve had a lot of football played.’

MCHUGH: “We had a lot of football played, and the way we play is very high-energy, high-octave type of football. Even the first half, you know, we won on breaks and we got up the field, and then in the second half, there just wasn’t that energy.

“It caught up on them after a long season and a long few weeks.

“Even winning the Leinster and what that has brought for them is something different for them that they’ve never experienced before.

“It’s been a huge step forward for this group and for the county, but it’s only a step. The ceiling’s very high for that group of players, in my view.

“We have young players coming in all the time, like James Mitchell came in today for his senior debut in a championship preliminary quarter-final, in goals, and took to it like a duck to water.

“We have Shane Ormsby around the middle, Shane Corcoran and Jack Duncan and Tadhg Baker – them boys are only out of U20.

“The ceiling is really high here. We have to stick together. We all have to come back next year and go to the well again.

“We’ve taken one step; we have a few more steps forward to take.”