Westmeath may be without Under 21s for Laois clash

WESTMEATH look unlikely to recall any under-21 players to the senior panel for as long as the under-21s remain in the Cadbury's Leinster Under-21 Football Championship. Following last weekend's narrow defeat for the seniors against Meath in Navan (1-12 to 2-8), a game which saw a marked improvement from a much-maligned but very inexperienced Westmeath side, the Lake County are now preparing for the visit of Laois to Cusack Park, Mullingar on Sunday(2.30pm), in the fourth series of matches in this year's National Football League. The county received a massive lift last Saturday when the under-21s defeated Meath in the Leinster under-21 quarter-finals, and they now progress to face Laois in the semi-finals on St Patrick's Day (venue and time TBA), thus making it highly unlikely any of the under-21s will be recalled to play for the seniors this weekend. Speaking after last weekend's double-header against Meath, senior team selector Michael 'Spike' Fagan: "That subject is a little bone of contention at the moment and the management will discuss it in detail during the week. I think the under-21 players might be better left alone for the time-being, and allow them the opportunity to really do something special at under-21 level. "My own personal feelings on the matter tend to change all the time...it depends what time of the day you talk to me! But listen, the under-21s did magnificently to comprehensively defeat Meath last weekend and I think it shows there's plenty of talent coming through in Westmeath. There will be great competition in the senior panel once the five or six under-21s return to it," added Fagan. After suffering heavy defeats to Donegal and Armagh in the opening two league games, the senio's came in for heavy criticism in several quarters, but Fagan believes last Saturday's effort against Meath will stand them in good stead for the future. "We were a bit unfortunate in the end to lose to a last-gasp point. The players reacted well to the two earlier defeats and deserve a bit of credit here. We also had a bad start against Meath but the players got their heads together and did what was asked of them. But it's important the lads realise they need to reproduce the same level of effort against Laois. Laois got a good result against Armagh (losing 0-13 to 0-12) and it's going to be hard work on Sunday, but we're hoping to step up our game again and produce a very good performance," Fagan said. Both David Duffy and Francis Boyle picked up injuries during last Saturday's loss to Meath and had to be substituted, but Fagan reckons both players have a "fair chance" of featuring against Laois. Westmeath trailed by six points at half-time last Saturday evening, but staged a great fightback, which included goals from Paul Bannon and Michael Ennis, to see the side's level going into the closing moments. Unfortunately for Westmeath, a late Stephen Bray point snatched victory for the Royal County, leaving Westmeath still rooted to the bottom of Division 2 with no points from three outings. Manager Brendan Hackett, though, feels his team might have "turned a corner" after the performance against Meath. "Meath were very sharp but I'm very happy with the way we came back in the second half. The team is in transition and we had to do without a few under-21 players. There are other players missing but we have to work with what we have," said Hackett. "A draw would have been the fairest result, but I'm happy at the way we came back in the second half. That was a big change from the game against Armagh," he added. Meanwhile, Meath manager Eamonn O'Brien admitted his team were lucky to overcome Westmeath. "We were relieved and happy to get the win in the end," he said after Stephen Bray's last-gasp winner. "It was a poor second half performance from us. We played well in the first half, but we didn't convert enough chances when we were on top. Overall, we're just relieved to get away with two points, we probably would have considered ourselves lucky if we had got one point. We were fortunate to come away with the win as Westmeath played very well in the last 15 minutes," he added.