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Westmeath minor hurlers bid to reach Leinster final for first time

The Westmeath minor hurlers will be bidding to make history this evening (Wednesday), when they face Kilkenny in the Leinster championship semi-final at Cusack Park, Mullingar (throw-in: 7.30pm).

Westmeath have never reached the Leinster minor hurling final, but Seamus Qualter"s side will be trying to change that statistic this evening.

Back in 1999, Westmeath came close back to reaching the provincial decider when they lost by two points to Kilkenny in the semi-final at Mullingar. It was a major scare for the Cats and "Escape from Mullingar" was the headline over the "Kilkenny People" report on the game.

Westmeath manager Seamus Qualter is pleased with the progress made by his side, but is under no illusions about the huge task facing his charges against hurling aristocrats Kilkenny.

'We have made a good bit of progress in reaching the semi-final, considering the minor footballers are out and Westmeath is more of a football county. I think the minor team of Brendan Murtagh and John Shaw (1999) was the last time Westmeath got this far,' he said.

Having defeated Kildare (3-15 to 2-12) and Carlow (3-9 to 2-6) in the early rounds, Westmeath qualified for the semi-final with a memorable win over Offaly (1-10 to 1-7). That quarter-final victory came as a shock to most observers, but Qualter went into the game quietly confident.

'We put a good bit of work into the Offaly game. We had played Offaly earlier in the year and they gave us a big beating. But they had done a lot of work at that stage while we didn"t start training until the 1st of March. Offaly may have underestimated us a bit, but on the day we were six or eight points the better team. I wasn"t surprised by that win, I knew if we performed we"d be in with a good chance,' said the Turloughmore native.

'There are a lot of good young hurlers in the county, and I think Westmeath will have a good minor team for the next few years,' he added.

Southern Gaels/Fr Dalton"s duo Enda Kincaid and Donal Glynn are members of the Westmeath squad. The only dual county players on the panel are Davy Gavin and Cormac Boyle, both of whom were part of the football squad that was defeated by Meath in the Leinster quarter-final.

Even though the footballers are out of the championship, Seamus and his management team opted against drafting in new players.

'There are other lads like John Heslin who are good hurlers as well as footballers, but we decided to go with the panel we picked at the start of the year,' he said.

Kilkenny booked their place in the semi-final with a 4-18 to 1-8 win over Offaly - a result which underlines how difficult it will be for Westmeath to overcome the Cats.

'Kilkenny are very strong in the forward line. They have a very good full-forward and two good wing-forwards, but we"ll try to come up with something that will stifle them. We won"t stand back looking at them anyway,' said Seamus.

The Westmeath defence was rightly lauded after the Offaly victory and it was an aspect of the performance that pleased Qualter, but he insists his side need to be more ruthless in front of goal.

'To hold Offaly to 1-7 was very good and the Offaly goal came with the last puck of the game. But we had four wides shortly after half-time and we can"t afford to miss so many chances against Kilkenny.

'We need to put everything away against Kilkenny and stop them from scoring goals. They"ll come at us early on and try to kill the game off.

'The longer we can stay with them the better chance we"ll have.'

In 2006, Qualter was manager of the Westmeath senior team who played Kilkenny in the Leinster semi-final at Cusack Park. Westmeath put in a very creditable display against the men in black and amber, who went on to win the All-Ireland that year.

With this evening"s game being played at the same venue, and against the same opposition, it naturally brings back some memories for Seamus.

'That what"s it"s all about, playing these quality teams,' he said. 'We just took one game at a time this year. We got over Kildare and Carlow, then we stepped it up against Offaly. We"ve beaten whatever teams have been put in front of us.

'It"s all new ground, it"s different than senior level where you"d know the Kilkenny players. Certain lads will react differently to pressure so we"re trying to keep the lads relaxed and treating it as just another game.

One thing we won"t be lacking is spirit, we have that in abundance.

'There is huge interest in the game in the hurling areas of the county, around Mullingar and so on, and I believe Enda Dowd (Southern Gaels/Fr Dalton"s) is bringing a bus to the match from Athlone with about 50 kids.'

'We"re used to playing in front of about 50 people, so I"m not sure how we"ll react to a bigger crowd,' Seamus quipped, before adding that he hopes that his charges will be backed by a 'large vocal support'.

Qualter has no major injury worries to contend with, but three players .

Davy Gavin, Paddy Laide and Conor Thompson - have been away in the Gaeltacht for a number of weeks are only due back this morning (Wednesday).

In the build-up to the semi-final, Westmeath defeated Galway in a challenge match in Ballinasloe and although Galway were not at full strength on the day, Seamus was happy with the workout.

The other members of the management team by Barry Kennedy (Castlepollard), Pat O"Brien (Castletown-Geoghegan), Tommy Keegan (Clonkill), Paddy Walsh (Clonkill) and Kilbeggan"s Alan McCormack (co-ordinator).