O Flatharta seeks further improvement

Jun 15, 2009

Monday, June 15.

Tomás O Flatharta has admitted that Westmeath still have a huge amount of work to do if they are to have any hope of competing against the Dubs in the Leinster SFC semi-final.

Westmeath eventually saw off the challenge of a dogged Wicklow team after extra-time in Carlow on Sunday, but doubts remain over the Lake men after an indifferent performance.

However, O Flatharta can take solace from his side’s victory after a disastrous league campaign that was ruined by injuries to a number of key players.

The majority of his more experienced players were back in action against Wicklow, while talisman Dessie Dolan came on as a substitute to reivive their flagging challenge.

"I suppose throughout the league we had a lot of injuries and coming into this campaign had a lot of injuries," he said.

"Even today we didn't start a good few lads. We knew they wouldn't have been able for the full game. When we brought them on, I felt that they did make a difference."

He added: "Where we are coming from, last year we performed well in most of our league games.

"This year that didn't happen and we got relegated. Going into the Dublin game, if you were a pundit, you wouldn't give Westmeath any hope after the football you saw there today.

"And Dublin won the last four Leinster championships and seem to be moving well. I knew they had a lot of wides the last day [against Meath], but they created another 17 opportunities."

Meanwhile, Wicklow boss Mick O’Dwyer said the Garden County had no excuses after missing a number of chances, including a penalty, to win the game in ordinary time.

"We certainly have nobody to blame only ourselves," he said.

"We got the chances and we didn't take them - simple as that. When you miss a penalty on a given day, they are the ones you must be putting away if you are to win. You can't afford to miss a penalty. If we had got that, we would have went five points up and that would have made all the difference to us.

"Overall, though, I am quite happy with them and I don't think we would be ready for Dublin to be honest. It was great that we were able to put it up to a Division 1 team."