Published: Wednesday, 3rd March, 2010 5:00pm

Martin 'disgusted' by inept display

"Deplorable; I'm absolutely disgusted with that performance." These very unambiguous words were the first utterances from a clearly-upset Kevin Martin, a half an hour after his Westmeath charges had left the pitch following a 19-point humiliation at the hands of Carlow in last Sunday's second round Division Two tie in the National Hurling League.

"Three goals down at half-time and a man (Paul Greville) sent off, we knew it was going to be an uphill struggle. We started off brightly in the second half but then just died again. No excuses, no excuses. The players just did not put it in," the Offaly man added, clearly struggling to comprehend what he had just witnessed at Dr Cullen Park.

He went on to say that Greville's dismissal was a "bit of a factor" in the winning margin but conceded that, even with 15 men, "we still would have been beaten". Martin felt that his team's attitude and work-rate were "very, very poor", with "no organisation and no talking" in the backline. "We were opened up for the goals and the balls were driven into the net," the Tullamore man added.

When queried about his side looking "flat-footed", Martin pulled no punches: "It's one thing being flat-footed, but it's another thing not being bothered and that's what I saw. How can you go from a reasonably good performance against Wexford last weekend to that today?

The players have a lot to answer for. The training's going ok, it's just the way they apply themselves to the game is very, very poor and I'm disgusted with it." His team's ability to retain Division Two status is now under threat and Martin said that winning some of the remaining five league games is "up to the players, as I'm going to work with them and do my best. It's up to them. I've no doubt that if they put in the work they'll win a few games. It's an uphill battle now and it will test their temperament the week after next against Kildare. There's only so much we can do; the players have to do it on the field. We were lacking leaders there today."

Brendan Murtagh's omission from the starting team raised a few eyebrows among the tiny handful of travelling Westmeath fans, but Kevin Martin was keen to avoid the specifics of why the Clonkill man did not start.

"A couple of things happened and I'd rather not go into it. He played reasonably well when he came on, but his frees were still very poor, he'll have to work on them. This is what I am saying about leaders from when the game starts, from when the season starts. I can turn up every day of the week and train these lads, but they have to do it on the field. You can't go from a performance like last Sunday to this and blame anyone bar the players. They just weren't up to the mark."

He accepted that "the players are very disappointed, they're barely even talking in the dressing room".

"Mentally they are very poor at the minute, they're just going to have to build themselves up."

Referring back to the Wexford game, the former All-Star trotted out the statistic that "of the 63 balls of a 50/50 nature that went into our forward line that day, we only won 13, but we still only lost by seven scores (1-6). So if they really put in the effort up front, the game could have been different. I re-jigged it around today and put in a brand new half-forward line, but they didn't come up to the plate."

"It's back to the drawing board," the bainisteoir concluded ruefully, as the players and management got set to board the team bus for what must have been a painful trip home for all concerned.

Return to: Homepage | Sport Index | This article