Big weekend ahead for Westmeath senior teams

Without in any way meaning to be flippant about the current atrocities in eastern Europe, I could not resist in recent days ‘advising’ a former footballer of note, who part-owns an established business in Mullingar, to “take in those Ukrainian flags in case people think ye are supporting Longford next Saturday”!

Yes, all roads lead to TEG Cusack Park for the quarter-final of the Leinster senior football championship (throw-in 6pm) where age-old rivals and neighbours, Westmeath and Longford, do battle for a slot against as yet-undrawn opponents in a Delaney Cup penultimate round.

I think it is fair to say that at the start of the year most pundits would have quickly opted for a home win in this tie when they were doing their championship predictions. Indeed, the expectation was that Westmeath would have bounced back to Division 2 and not be fearing a slot in the Tailteann Cup.

However, it will still be Division 3 for the Lake County next spring and one of the main reasons for that – if not the main reason – was a shock home defeat in the league to their blue and gold-clad neighbours.

An unexpected four-point defeat (0-14 to 0-10) in Mullingar on March 5 all but scuppered the promotion hopes of Jack Cooney’s charges there and then, albeit it needed a horrendous missed open goal versus Fermanagh 15 days later at the same venue to effectively hammer the final nail into Westmeath’s third tier coffin.

Longford’s championship debutant manager Billy O’Loughlin was adamant when he was surprisingly appointed late last year that his priority was the league, given Dublin’s absolute domination of the Leinster championship for the last decade and a half. Longford managed to stay up in Division 3. Accordingly, one suspects that the attitude of O’Loughlin (a former St Loman’s, Mullingar player) is likely to have changed over the past month as fans in his adopted county would absolutely love to topple the men in maroon and white next Saturday.

The three Leinster preliminary round ties produced two shocks last Sunday, with Offaly’s defeat at the hands of Wexford and Laois’ loss to Wicklow. Nobody expects either of next Saturday’s two teams to be lifting the Delaney Cup in Croke Park on the night of Saturday, May 28, but the bragging rights which accrue from winning a local championship derby remain a core part of the GAA. Westmeath will be favourites, but nothing less than their best will suffice against a team with nothing to lose.

The sides have met 27 times in the senior championship over the years, with Westmeath on 11 wins and Longford on 13, while three matches were drawn . They also met twice in the All-Ireland ‘B’ (one win each), and the ‘reward’ for defeat on Saturday is definite inclusion in that ill-fated competition’s latest successor, the Tailteann Cup.

Westmeath v Longford – last ten meetings

The last ten football championship games between Westmeath and Longford resulted as follows – all Leinster SFC bar one Qualifier:

5/5/1963, Cusack Park, Longford 3-8, Westmeath 1-6

26/4/1964, Longford, Westmeath 0-12, Longford 0-8

10/5/1981, Longford, Westmeath 3-10, Longford 1-10

22/5/1988, Longford, Longford 1-11, Westmeath 0-7

20/5/1990, Cusack Park, Longford 0-15, Westmeath 0-7

17/5/1998, Longford, Westmeath 3-14, Longford 1-13

30/5/1999, Cusack Park, Westmeath 3-17, Longford 2-9

13/5/2007, Longford, Longford 2-13, Westmeath 1-13

7/7/2007, Cusack Park, Westmeath 0-18, Longford 0-9 (Qualifier)

11/5/2008, Longford, Westmeath 2-10, Longford 1-10.

A pre-Covid commitment dating back to late 2019 meant that I was unable to travel to Galway for last Saturday evening’s second round robin tie in the race for the Bob O’Keeffe Cup. Of course, Westmeath were never in the actual ‘race’ for that spectacular trophy, but one of the four teams (with all due respect to Laois) who are, Galway, gave the Lake County men a right old trouncing in Pearse Stadium, thereby taking some of the gloss off a very acceptable display seven days earlier against Kilkenny in TEG Cusack Park.

Indeed, listening to the Midlands 103 commentary on the first half was a deeply unpleasant experience. One mate texted me with the hope that “Galway won’t rub Salthill into our wounds”! I had visions of ringing Paddy Flanagan the following day to double-check what our record defeat was, until it struck me that the great man – and he was a great man – had been buried a day earlier. In the end, it was a 26-point defeat, albeit a 40-pointer seemed possible during the first moiety.

That can’t be changed now and it’s back to Mullingar again for Joe Fortune’s troops on Sunday (throw-in 3pm) when the Dublin hurlers come to down. The small ball exponents in sky blue and navy have always been the poor relation of their big ball counterparts, but their eye-catching win in Wexford last Saturday, following on from a narrow win in Parnell Park against the aforementioned Laois the previous week, will have given Fortune and co plenty to think about.

Yours truly was amused earlier in the year to hear loose talk of possibly defeating Dublin and Wexford ahead of the really big game away to Laois, as I always felt that the Metropolitans were a cut above Westmeath. Mattie Kenny’s men are all but through to the knockout stages already and it will take a mammoth home display to be competitive next Sunday.

It is essential that the promise shown against the Cats does not disappear rapidly. A narrow defeat would surely be a reasonable ambition. Anything better would be just fabulous.

Westmeath and Dublin have met on 19 occasions in the senior championship, with Lake County wins coming just twice, the most recent in an O’Moore Park quagmire in 2006. Of course, a subsequent play-off defeat undid a lot of the good in that memorable win in Portlaoise.

Westmeath v Dublin – last ten meetings

The last ten SHC games between Westmeath and Dublin have gone as follows:

30/5/1982, Croke Park, Westmeath 2-12, Dublin 2-11

29/5/1988, Kilkenny, Dublin 1-14, Westmeath 1-9

18/5/1997, Cusack Park, Dublin 5-15, Westmeath 2-8

14/5/2000, Cusack Park, Dublin 1-20, Westmeath 0-7

12/5/2002, Cusack Park, Dublin 2-12, Westmeath 1-12

10/5/2003, Parnell Park, Dublin 4-17, Westmeath 0-13

13/6/2004, Croke Park, Dublin 2-14, Westmeath 0-11

21/5/2006, Portlaoise, Westmeath 0-13, Dublin 0-11

15/7/2006, Tullamore, Dublin 0-16, Westmeath 0-8 (play-off)

25/5/2008, Portlaoise, Dublin 3-21, Westmeath 0-11.

— Gerry Buckley