McHugh feels Westmeath must be more assertive

A cold, wet night in Newry brought a sharp dose of reality for Westmeath, and manager Mark McHugh did not shy away from the shortcomings after watching his side claw back from the brink of a heavy defeat before ultimately falling short against Down.

“When you're finished afterwards, you're cold and wet and everything seems like the end of the world,” he admitted. “But we didn't do enough tonight. We started the game well, but the whole first half was just way off what we're used to and we weren't doing the right things. We were making a lot of silly handling errors.”

McHugh pointed to a disrupted build-up, though he was quick to stress it was no excuse. “Now I'm not using an excuse at all, but we didn't have a grass field this week, and we couldn't get one, the clubs wouldn't give it to us. And I felt like that hampered us a wee bit in the first half, the boys weren't used to, you know, the wetness of the muck and stuff like that.

“It took us a while to get going, and we were in a very, very bad position at half-time. And we had a good look at ourselves at half-time, at what we were doing and who was doing what. We just went back to basics a wee bit and we grounded out the second half and we ended up making it a game and we finished the game very, very strongly, thankfully. And the subs then coming in, Brían, Robbie, Senan and Jack and Brian, they all contributed to it at the end.

"But we just didn't do enough over the course of 70 minutes to win the game. There's no point looking at it any other way. We didn't do enough and we have to look at that for next week and rectify it.”

Eight points down at the break and 13 adrift at one stage in the second half, Westmeath looked out of it before a late surge left them within touching distance.

“We could have stolen it and it would have been a big theft, to be honest with you,” McHugh said. “And we had chances there at the end to actually get a two-pointer. But there were mistakes all over the field today and by our bigger players, actually that we're not accustomed to and it just didn't go well for everybody today, unfortunately.

“This is not an easy place to come. I think I read that Westmeath have never won here, so it's two points at the end of the day; if we got them, great; if not, we have a game next week anyway.

"I don't think any of us were foolish enough to think at the start of the league that we were going to go through this division unbeaten. We'd obviously like that, but there's going to be points pulled from everywhere. Everybody thought Sligo would have won tonight down in Laois, and that didn't happen either.

"But I think what tonight will teach us is that if we're not on it every day and we're not at the level every day, we're going to be punished. And we were punished for a long majority of that game until we just knuckled down and showed a bit of real fight and character at the end, which we're accustomed to now with these boys. But we can't leave it late like that all the time.”

A key battleground was possession from kick-out, an area McHugh acknowledged remains a work in progress.

“It's an area that we have struggled in, and we looked at something different today with Jason (Daly) in goals instead. We tried different things, and yes, it's not working.

“I feel in modern day football now, there’s not big catches all around. The ball is going to ground, so it’s breaking ball. You don’t have to be big to win the breaking ball. The smallest man on the field should be able to win breaking ball. You have to bend your back and you have to be brave. And I’ll be straight, there was a few of our boys out there today weren’t brave enough to bend their back.

“I don’t know, were they afraid of getting hurt? Were they afraid of getting a wee kick in the face? But if you’re not brave enough to win dirty ball, you’ll not win it. And we have to learn going forward that we have to be brave to get down on that ball, because we’re not winning the breaking ball around the middle of the field in the first three games. And we’ve looked at that and we’ve started to work on it as best we can. But it’s a slow process. But listen, if you’re not brave enough to go down on the ball, you’re not going to win it.”

However, McHugh was pleased with the displays of some players. “Shane Allen was a warrior out there, I thought he was absolutely superb. Kevin Sullivan died with his boots on today, Charlie Drumm, Danny Scahill, you know, they had awesome games. And I think the boys that came in really finished the job too. But our bigger players today, you know, just things didn’t go well for them.”

There are injury concerns too with Tadhg Baker hurting his shoulder and Sam McCartan going off on Saturday night, with McHugh hoping the latter’s injury is “just a bit of cramp”.

Attention now turns to next Sunday’s game in Mullingar against Fermanagh, who lost to Clare at Brewster Park last Sunday.

“If you’re not on it, every game, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing in this league, you’re going to be punished. And we’re going to have to be right for next week. And we will, we’ll dust ourselves down on Tuesday night. We’ll look at the video, we’ll look at what we can improve on. And there’s so many aspects of tonight that we can improve on.

“As I said, it’s not Championship football tonight, we’re not knocked out. We have a game next week and that’s the nature of this. It’s a bit of reality check early on for those players, that if we’re not on it, we’re going to be caught. And that’s, I think that’s the lesson we’ll take from Newry.”

On the broader picture, McHugh was candid about the new for improvement. “There’s improvements in every game. We’ve played well in parts of the games against Sligo and Clare. But it’s just getting that consistency. And I’m not a fool to think you’re going to dominate a game for 70 minutes. That’s not going to happen in today’s games. But I want to see a wee bit more consistency all over the field. And just start doing more of the stuff that we’re doing at training.

“And it was one of those nights, things didn’t work out for everybody, but you have those nights. It’s football. It’s pouring rain. It’s cold. You’re in Newry, and you’re in Down’s home backyard. There’s a big crowd. They’re after coming back from a nice, warm training camp. And they were prepared for the game, and they really targeted tonight. You could see that early on. And we had no answer to them early on.

“Thankfully, we dug ourselves out of a hole that we were in. We were 13 points down, and we got back to two. And we had the chance at the end to maybe kick a two-pointer to draw or level it up. We didn’t do it. We move on, and we’ll get ready for Fermanagh.”

The impact from the bench offered encouragement, but McHugh’s message to his starters was clear.

“I said to them, the boys are coming on to make a point. I’d like the boys starting to start making points. Do you know what I mean? Now, the boys that are starting, they need to start the game better. And if boys don’t start doing that, subs will be starting then going forward, and that’s a great thing to have in a competitive squad.

“We’re not under no illusion of where we’re at. We’re trying to build something definitely, and we’ve had a good start. I will say one thing. If you told me before the league that we would have four points after three games, I would have taken your hand off. But we have to get ready for Fermanagh and another huge battle in Mullingar next week,” McHugh added.