Garrycastle bid to reach decider as St Loman"s stand in their way

GARRYCASTLE forward Paul Dillon has brushed aside claims that the Athlone-based club are firm favourites to see off St Loman"s in Sunday"s Westmeath SFC semi-final clash in Cusack Park (throw-in: 3.30pm). Most neutral observers are tipping Martin McCabe"s Garrycastle to secure a place in the senior football final for a fifth time since the turn of the century, but with St Loman"s desperate to reach the county decider for the first time in 40 years, Paul Dillon admits his team will face a tough encounter this weekend. Garrycastle qualified for the quarter-finals by finishing second in a very tough group that also included Athlone, Bunbrosna, Castledaly, Mullingar Shamrocks and Tyrrellspass, before defeating The Downs in the quarter-final. St Loman"s, on the other hand, somewhat surprisingly topped their qualifying group ahead of Coralstown-Kinnegad and The Downs, thus sealing automatic qualification to the semi-finals. However, most experts will view Garrycastle as favourites to emerge from Sunday"s last four meeting. The game precedes the other semi-final clash between Castledaly and reigning champions Tyrrellspass. Paul Dillon, who has featured prominently in Garrycastle"s last couple of matches, is approaching the match with caution. 'I don"t know about people saying we"re favourites; you can"t really read into that at all,' Dillon said. 'St Loman"s topped their qualifying group and that was no mean feat, so we know it"s going to be very difficult on Sunday. I think St Loman"s have a nice blend of youth and experience. They won"t be afraid of any team. It"s a long time since Garrycastle and St Loman"s met in the championship but it should be a good game. I suppose St Loman"s are something of an unknown quantity to us, so that could be a dangerous thing. All we can do is give it our best shot and hopefully it will be good enough to get us to the final,' he added. Dillon did admit Garrycastle have been happier with their recent performances. Despite only losing once in the qualifying group to Tyrrellspass, it"s generally accepted Garrycastle had flattered to deceive until their last two outings against local rivals Athlone and then The Downs. It was during those two games that Garrycastle finally reached a level of consistency considered good enough to actually win the championship. Dillon said: 'I think the Athlone game came at the right time for us. We had been stuttering along that game. Okay, we had beaten Bunbrosna and Mullingar Shamrocks but our actual performances weren"t too great. Then we lost to Tyrrellspass by a point before drawing with Castledaly, so we needed to win against Athlone and played quite well that day. I think we produced a bit more because we were playing Athlone and we"ve grown as a team since then. 'Personally, I think I should be contributing a bit more. Okay, I managed a few scores in recent games but I probably should have scored more, to be honest. I"m looking forward to Sunday and hopefully we can secure a place in the final. It will be very tough but I think we"ve a side capable of producing a win.' Aidan Browne and Paddy Mulvihill are carrying injuries but are expected to take their places in the Garrycastle starting line-up. Garrycastle last reached the county final in 2005 when they lost to The Downs and were eliminated at the semi-final stage last year by Tyrrellspass. Indeed, Garrycastle will be looking to avoid a third successive semi-final defeat after also losing at that stage to Castledaly in 2006. Garrycastle last won the championship in 2004 with victory over Castledaly. St Loman"s have failed to capture the county crown since 1968 and will be desperate to overcome Garrycastle this weekend. Among those St Loman"s are likely to look to for inspiration are former Westmeath star James Davitt, John Aherne, Conor Lynam, Kenny McKinley, Paul Martin and Conrad Reilly. The Mullingar outfit actually lost their opening group fixture to Coralstown-Kinnegad but recovered well with victories over Killucan, St Malachy"s, Ballinagore and The Downs. Interestingly, only Garrycastle managed to score more points than St Loman"s during the qualifying process (Garrycastle 75, St Loman"s 72). And although St Loman"s topped their group, it"s generally perceived they qualified through a somewhat weaker group to Garrycastle.