McHugh delighted ‘to get back on track’
By Gerry Buckley
When Westmeath senior football manager Mark McHugh was asked if last Sunday’s clash with Fermanagh in TEG Cusack Park was ‘a game of two halves’, he conceded that “it was, but with these new rules, the conditions have a lot to do with that, especially when the wind is strong and you have the two-pointers”.
The Donegal man continued: “I actually thought we played very, very well in the first half, and people might laugh at me for saying that given that we were seven points down at the break. Take away the two silly goals that we conceded, and we would only have been a point down, which would have been absolutely amazing against that breeze. I felt that we controlled the game in the first half and we addressed the silly wee errors at half-time. Fermanagh got the goals at the right time, but we felt if we kept the scoreboard ticking over, with that severe wind, we would eat into the lead pretty quickly. We did that, and when we got a few points ahead, it was difficult for Fermanagh to get back into it. It was important not to rush things and take potshots, but we didn’t do that. We kicked a few one-pointers as well, to keep things ticking over. Then we just saw the game out. It wasn’t that hard to kick two-pointers today. I think I even kicked one myself before the game,” he added with a smile. The bainisteoir was happy with both his attack and defence: “I thought Brían Cooney was fantastic today. He has had to bide his time coming off the bench. I thought, to a man, we played well today. We attacked well, but our one-on-one defending was also very good. We defended our goals well late on, and Senan (Baker) stopped them getting a goal, but he got an injury in the process. He’s in a lot of pain there now. It’s disappointing for the young lad. He had a lot of trouble last year with his hamstring. Jonny (Lynam) may have picked up a knock also, but that’s the nature of league football when you have games week in, week out, and you’re training hard as well.
“That’s why you have a squad and next week maybe two or three more people might get a chance. Lads are pushing all the time to get into the 26. That makes it enjoyable for me, seeing lads bursting a gut every week at training.”
McHugh also praised his goalkeepers and the ball-winners further out the field: “Jack Connaughton pulled off a great save late on. We have two very good keepers in Jack and Jason (Daly). It is Jack’s first year in the panel and he’s growing in confidence all the time. His kick-outs were better today and we competed a lot better in and around the middle. After me giving out about them a bit last week, they definitely did the right thing today and got down over the ball better. Kieran McGeeney came out about the same thing during the week. There’s not too much clean catching, but it’s about winning the ‘dirty ball’, the ‘piggery ball’, as he calls it, and there’s a skill in it. It was a really solid performance today and it was great to get back on track after last week.”
Westmeath have six points in the bag now, but they face a tricky assignment in Portlaoise next Saturday (throw-in 6pm). McHugh concluded: “Laois are fighting for their lives. We have to go down there and match their hunger and intensity. We need something out of these last few games to get where we want to – that is back in Division 2.”