Westmeath to face Royal foes in two key games on the same day

A major weekend for Westmeath football sees the Lake County take on old nemesis Meath in two key matches at different levels on Saturday. Firstly, the counties meet in the quarter-finals of the Cadbury's Leinster Under-21 FC at Cusack Park, Mullingar (2pm), before the senior sides clash at Páirc Tailteann, Navan, in the third series of matches in Division 2 of this year's National Football League (7.30pm). Playing two matches on the same day will obviously bring about certain difficulties for Westmeath in terms of player selection, with anything up to eight under-21 players - including the likes of Conor Lynam, Thomas McDaniel and Kieran Martin - normally expected to be in contention for the senior side. And Brendan Hackett - who manages both teams - is sure to have his hands full on the day, having very little time to work on preparation with his senior panel following the under-21 game earlier on. Hackett's reign as Westmeath senior team manager has already got off to a disappointing start, losing to Donegal and then suffering a heavy defeat to Armagh in his first two league matches. His tenure thus far has also been badly hampered by the decision of some of the more senior players, including Dessie Dolan, John Keane and, most recently Denis Glennon, to withdraw their services from the panel. There was also more bad news for Hackett late last week when under-21 selector and Maryland manager Finbar Egan stepped down from his role with the county. Hackett said that Egan played a big role in the development of the team but, due to other commitments, could not continue to give so much time to the set-up. Westmeath's senior team warmed-up for Saturday with a one-point defeat to Cavan in a challenge match on Monday evening in Athlone. Shandonagh midfielder David Duffy picked up a knock from a collision during that game but is expected to be fit for Saturday, with Hackett admitting that Westmeath face a hugely difficult task against the Royal County in the senior match. Westmeath were knocked out of last year's All-Ireland qualifiers by Meath, and traditionally have a very poor record against their near-neighbours - although Westmeath can point to a rare victory over the Royals in their last league meeting two years ago. Meath opened their league campaign with a slender victory over Armagh but have since lost to Down. Speaking about Saturday's senior match, Hackett said: "It's a tough ask for any county to play two matches over the course of a weekend, but to ask ourselves and Meath to play at under-21 and senior level on the very same day is not great form. We've been filtering through a fair few under-21 players into our senior panel in recent months, but obviously they will play with the under-21s this weekend. There's a cross-over of between six to eight players, so it puts a lot of pressure on the senior team, knowing they are short the services of the younger lads." Hackett's reign so far has possibly been more noted for the amount of senior players making themselves unavailable for selection, with Tyrrellspass attacker Denis Glennon becoming the latest to pull away from the panel last week. Glennon has been a mainstay in Westmeath's attack over recent years and is currently their top-scorer in the league. But Hackett is refusing to dwell on the unavailability of certain players. "You always encounter changes when you're going through a period of transition and re-building. It's just part of the change process," he said. "I have tried to avoid speaking about individual cases since taking the manager's job and prefer to focus on the players that are available to us. The period of re-building we are currently experiencing is a natural occurrence for most counties every five or ten years. Westmeath won a Leinster title in 2004 but most those players are coming to the end of their careers now. I recognise it's a tough period for supporters as the new players learn and adjust to inter-county football, but personally I love and embrace the challenge of putting a new squad together. And I firmly believe Westmeath will have a very competitive team within two years," added Hackett. The Westmeath manager would not be drawn on any possible future involvement with the panel for Denis Glennon, and also refused to say whether any contact has been made with the Tyrrellspass man since his decision to leave the panel last week. "It's not my policy to speak about individual players and I prefer to focus on the players we have," said Hackett. The under-21s also managed to get in some match practice last weekend, comfortably beating Limerick in a challenge match on Saturday. Mullingar Shamrocks pair Darragh Daly and Lorcan Smyth, who were not on the panel for the opening round victory over Kildare, featured in that challenge match and could come into contention for Saturday. Garrycastle's James Dolan could also come back into the side after missing the Kildare game. David Tone (Rosemount) and Brian Slevin remain unavailable through injury, but Hackett feels Westmeath are better prepared for the Meath match than against Kildare. "I feel we've ironed out a few of our problems since the Kildare game," he said. "We created a lot of scoring opportunities against Kildare but our final execution was disappointing at times. We probably had 60 per cent of possession against Kildare but didn't take full advantage, but we've worked on a few things and feel our overall game has advanced since. Most of Meath's under-21 players are used to a fair amount of success and Colm O'Rourke knows his players very well from the schools set-up. I see Meath as a very physical side but I'm hoping the speed of some of our players will counteract that," Hackett added. The Westmeath manager is also hoping the U-21s can prosper from having home advantage on Saturday.