Moate seek long awaited win in bid to avoid drop

MOATE ALL-Whites manager Tommy Gorman admits he faces a tough task to raise his beleaguered players ahead of this weekend's Westmeath IFC relegation play-off against Ballinagore (Saturday, Rosemount, 6pm). Despite possessing a long and proud record in Westmeath club football, with eight senior county titles in the bag (back as far as 1933 and as recently as in 1997), Moate will be relegated to the junior football ranks if they come up short on Saturday. The All-Whites were relegated to intermediate football in 2005, and despite some recent close brushes with relegation from the second tier, they've managed to avoid relegation to junior football since. Last year, they failed to win a game in the championship group stages, but draws with eventual champions Bunbrosna and Kilbeggan Shamrocks were enough to see them avoid the relegation play-off. This time around, things regressed further, as they finished the group series with no points, having lost to Ballymore, Caulry, Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall, St Mary's Rochfortbridge and Ballynacargy. It's all a far cry from their more glorious days, such as when former Westmeath hero Ger Heavin produced an inspirational display as Moate overcame Coralstown-Kinnegad in the 1997 Westmeath SFC final. But manager Tommy Gorman is not giving up the ghost ahead of Saturday's relegation showdown. "We're not in a great position and it's difficult picking the lads up. We haven't won a championship game for two years now, that speaks for itself, so it's very hard on the players. They've come close to winning some of those games, but we just can't seem to get over the finishing line," said Gorman. "We're in this position now and it's proving hard to motivate the players. Confidence is at a low ebb but we can still rescue the situation." The Moate manager is hoping to have a full-strength panel available for the game, but warned that Ballinagore will be tough opposition. "We played Ballinagore in the league earlier in the year, and lost by nine points, so that shows Ballinagore have plenty about them," said Gorman. "They're a big, strong and physical outfit. They also have Thomas McDaniel and he's key at this level, He's county standard really, and we've nobody like that. We've a lot of young lads and had to field four minors in our last match (an eight-point defeat to Ballynacargy). Everything seems to be going against us this year. Against Ballynacargy, we were very much in the game, just a point down, when we conceded a penalty. I'd no qualms about the penalty, it was definitely a penalty, but it just came at a very bad time. They scored the penalty and were four points clear. They added another point and suddenly we were out of the game. All we can do at the weekend is go out and play our best, and see if it's good enough. The lads will certainly do that and hopefully we'll get out of this sorry situation," added Gorman.