McHugh hails Westmeath fans as players dig deep again

Towards the end of last Saturday’s remarkable match, Mark McHugh was leaping into the air and stoking up the Westmeath supporters even further. The home crowd at a packed TEG Cusack Park was already bubbling like a cauldron despite the heavy rain that had teemed down in extra-time.

These were moments that again showed the connection between Westmeath’s youthful manager and the county’s supporters.

“Yeah, worried is one word. I was concerned maybe that they could have said to themselves, look up at the sky, it’s pouring rain here and we’ve (already) got our Leinster medal. But they found something. I don’t know what they found, to be honest with you. It took a lot of character, a lot of guts and a lot of everything, and we showed all that, but we also showed a lot of skill in that second half of extra-time to kick the scores we kicked, and the running was unbelievable,” said McHugh after his side overcame Cavan, despite staring defeat in the face when six points down at half-time in extra-time.

“Cavan had put in a massive shift up to that, and we just kept getting stronger towards the end. We said we’re going to get shooters on the field because we felt that there was a wee breeze there. We were brave, we went forward, we went man-on-man all over the field and we got our rewards. Senan (Baker) got one (a two-pointer), Wally (Ronan Wallace) got one, Brandon (Kelly) kicked a lovely score and then we got the goal. Listen, we don’t do anything the easy way, but it was just an unbelievable game of football for a neutral, I’d imagine.

“The energy that the crowd gave us all day long got us home there at the end. I think the reason why people are supporting the team is they know they’re going to leave everything on that field and if that game doesn’t show that, I don’t think anything will,” continued McHugh.

Having allowed a nine-point lead to slip away in normal time, McHugh asked about the character required to battle back from six points down.

“Listen, a lead of nine points is not nine anymore and six is not six anymore. We said that at half-time. Okay, it’s six points, but it’s only three two-pointers. There was a good strong breeze and we had good footballers on the field that could kick them.

“Conor Casey had come on for Cavan and kicked two unbelievable-two-pointers and you just have to tip the hat. The one he got to draw the game was a fabulous kick, an unbelievable kick to be fair to him. We felt that if we got on top we’d get energy off the crowd, and that’s what we did.”

Asked about the challenge of refocusing the team after the Leinster final victory, McHugh made light of this aspect but spoke about his annoyance over the draw for the All-Ireland series being well before the provincial finals.

“That was a joke. If we lost today, it would be sour grapes, but having the draw way back to let Cavan have four weeks on us just wasn’t fair. We didn’t look at Cavan until probably ten days out and it was the same with Tyrone going down to Roscommon or Donegal going down to Kerry,” he remarked.

"Obviously home advantage for getting to the Leinster final was a plus, but it wasn’t enough and it wasn’t fair. So that was the ambush that was waiting and Kerry got it and Roscommon got it.

“Dermot (McCabe) obviously knew everything about Westmeath; we worked with him last year and we know what kind of a coach he is. He was always going to have them ready, but I thought we played a lot of good football,” McHugh continued.

The Donegal man admitted to “a bit of déjà vu” about having to play extra-time for a third game in a row, but of course it was a different scenario on Saturday as Westmeath faced a six-point deficit midway through the additional play.

“I think what stood to us was being able to come in and knowing how to start a new fresh team. However, in the two extra-time games that we had played, we were not in the position that we were in at half-time today. And that was something different we had to look at,” he said.

“I said, ‘lads, we’re in a position now that’s a wee bit different than we’ve been in, but let’s stay calm’. As we said, it’s only three two-pointers. Thankfully, they listened and they just showed that wee bit extra and the running power.

“Danny Scahill and Charlie (Drumm) give us legs to come up the field. When all the other boys were wrecked, they threw the energy in. That’s ultimately what won the game. How Sully (Kevin O’Sullivan) got up for that goal, I’ll never know. I tip my hat to him because the running he’s done today, I’d love to see the GPS there.”

As for pitting his wits against Dermot McCabe, a man he worked alongside last year, McHugh downplayed this element of the equation.

“Listen, I think people make more of a deal of that than there actually is,” he said. “I think Dermot Cabe was the right man for Cavan in my opinion when the opportunity arose, and I told him that at the time. Thankfully this job opened up for me, so it’s kind of worked out well for us all. Dermot is back in his home county and, you know, I’m doing alright here. Thankfully, we got one up on them today, but there was nothing in it. It was tit for tat there for a long time and maybe over the course of the game, we just shaded it.”

When sloppy passes and turnovers were mentioned as allowing Cavan back into the contest, McHugh pointed to Westmeath’s scoring tally of 1-31 and quipped “it’s not bad, is it?”.

He felt the bounce of the ball back off the crossbar favoured Cavan for their second goal. As for their third green flag, he said “the two-point shot that falls short is the most dangerous ball in Gaelic football right now, there’s goals coming off it everywhere. They’re dangerous balls and they’re hard to defend, and (Dara) McVeety was coming in and he got the goal”.

“It was difficult conditions, especially when the rain started and it was slippy. When you play football at this level, if you’re going to be brave and go at teams, you’re going to make mistakes. We know we’re going to make mistakes; it’s all about how we react when we make mistakes.”

Again, Westmeath’s bench played a key role with McHugh hailing the impact of those who were introduced. “Harry Niall didn’t make the 26 for the Leinster final and he came on today and helped to change the game. Jack Duncan was brilliant and Senan came back on. Eoghan McCabe came on and was a calm presence and obviously John Heslin has come back into the fold as well,” he said.

“I suppose from early days we were trying to build a squad, that’s probably what we didn’t have last year. We lost a lot of games coming down the stretch so we felt so we had to go looking far and wide. We had to do a lot of persuading boys to come in or to make sure they would stay on. and I’m sure they’re glad they did now.

"There’s unbelievable footballers in Westmeath and there’s more out there; there’s young lads coming through and, hopefully, this will inspire them to try even harder and do the right things to put on that Westmeath senior jersey someday.

“We’re still in the championship and if somebody goes out and plays well in club football next weekend, I’ll be looking at them; that’s the way I’m looking at this squad.”

Asked about the difference made by the throngs of vociferous Westmeath supporters, Mark said: “I think all you need to do is look around you and you’ll see it’s covered with maroon and that’ll make you run that wee bit faster.

“I came in after an O’Byrne Cup game (earlier in the year), we may have had a few hundred people out there. I asked people to try and support this team and we do know that you have to do something to get support,” he said, pointing to home games last year where Westmeath fans were outnumbered.

“We were trying to change that and the way to do that is to put in the type of performances that people can say, geez, ‘they’re doing everything for the Westmeath jersey’. It was great to see this place packed from top to bottom.

“When Sully kicked that ball in the net, the place erupted and then obviously when we got the free at the end to go four up and there was no time left for them to get two scores, that’s when the elation and the relief came out.

“Please God, we get a good draw on Tuesday, a home draw and, if not, we’ll deal with it, but it’s just great to see the buzz around the town.

Speaking before the draw for the second round was made, McHugh said: "Whoever we get, we hope people will travel with us and go wherever we are.

“I think after the whole year is over, we’ll get time to celebrate it with our people and sit back as a team and reflect, but there’s more work to do here,” added the Kilcar man.

*See separate article here with details of Westmeath's next game in round 2A of the All-Ireland SFC.