McKinley praises super U20 footballers

Gerry Buckley

After his charges had defeated neighbours Offaly by a whopping 18 points in Tullamore last Tuesday evening, Westmeath U20 manager Kenny McKinley was understandably delighted with the splendid football on display in retaining the Andrew Corden Cup.

The St Loman’s, Mullingar man went on to say: “Whether it’s by one point or 21 points, anytime you come down here and get a win is great. The lads played super stuff and I have to take my hat off to them. Since we were put out of the main competition, we knuckled down. The Longford game was always going to be a banana skin, but since that the attitude in training has been great. What’s really helping is the quality of subs that we are bringing on. They are able to take things up the gears. There are ten lads on the sideline and I think if we put those ten lads on to the pitch, we’d still operate at the same level. That’s the headache we have every week! Everybody’s flying at training. There is huge camaraderie at training, which is fantastic. The craic we’re having at training is great and the boys are enjoying it.”

McKinley was, of course, an All-Ireland winning minor defender himself in 1995 and when it was put to him that his defence was very impressive, in addition to the impressive midfield partnership and the free-scoring forward division, he responded: “Yes, it has been huge. We have great consistency in the backs. Then again, if you look today, that was Gareth Mulanniff’s first start at wing back and he had an absolutely super game. Taylor Slevin was a bit unfortunate to lose out, but he was in for the Laois game. The same three lads have been in the full back line all along and they are the backbone of the defence. They are very solid.

"But it’s all down to how the lads are hopping off each other at training, in a good way. There’s not a bad egg among the 33 lads that we have. That brings a great buzz to the training session and you can see that in the way they are playing football. When we get our running game going, we have great speed and can get great scores.”

There was uncertainty about Westmeath’s next opponents – since clarified to be Leitrim and McKinley is approaching it the same way.

“It’s one game at a time and everyone is enjoying it,” he added.