‘We can compete with anybody’ - McHugh relishing Meath test

Mark McHugh believes his Westmeath team can cause Meath plenty of problems in next Sunday’s Leinster SFC quarter-final in Tullamore (2pm).

“We feel as a group that we can compete with anybody in Ireland,” declared the Westmeath manager after his side’s comprehensive victory over Longford last Sunday.

Despite sounding that optimistic note, McHugh knows facing a resurgent Meath outfit is a massive challenge, and he contended that only having a week to prepare for the game is an unfair situation.

“I actually feel that it’s a wee bit unfair, to be honest with you. All the teams that played this weekend have to play next weekend against one of the big four, if you want to call them, and I feel that’s unfair. There should be a two-week break. Obviously, they could go and watch all the games today and I’m sure Robbie Brennan (Meath manager) was out there,” said McHugh.

“But people also say there’s nothing better than playing games and winning games, so we need to refresh and recover and get the bodies right, and we have to go again on Tuesday night and Thursday night. It’s all about the training, how we can prepare for them. We haven’t looked at Meath yet. We were looking at Longford since the league, so we need to get started on them from tonight on and we’ll see what we can bring.

“We just have to get ready for them (Meath). I think there’s a good, healthy rivalry between Meath and Westmeath, and I don’t think there’s going to be much motivation needed this week,” he continued.

Naturally McHugh was pleased with his side’s performance in the 5-25 to 1-16 win over Longford.

“We definitely attacked well, especially in the first half, when we needed to, when the game was there to be won. Brandon Kelly had a great start and, you know, the harder ground shoots Brandon a lot better. We knew that when the hard ground comes, he’d be able to take off,” the Donegal man remarked.

“I thought we were very clinical in front of goals and the goals were finished very, very well. It was a really workmanlike performance, I thought. We probably gave away a few frees in that first half around the arc to give them two-pointers, and we have to clean up on that. But other than that, I just felt we were in control of the game.”

Pointing to the changes Longford had to make before the match, McHugh said they “probably depleted them a lot”. “You’re taking away the spine of the team, maybe that’s the reason we got down the middle a wee bit easy in the first half for goals,” he said.

With the win looking assured well before the end, McHugh and his management team were able to take players off in the second half last Sunday. “We could afford to take off a few people and you don’t always have that luxury. We were lucky in that sense, but when you’re playing 70 minutes’ football and the way the game is now, the high intensity, you’re going to use energy.”

McHugh said it wasn’t difficult to lift the players’ morale after they missed out on promotion from Division 3 after a last-gasp defeat to Wexford.

“I actually felt we played very well against Wexford; it was just that last five minutes. I thought on the whole Westmeath had a very good league. There’s no team in Ireland going to win all their league matches and away games are very, very hard. We saw how Wexford played against Down the following week. We should have been Wexford, there’s no doubt about that, we just didn’t get over the line,” he said.

“There’s always a lull after the league, but these are county footballers. Championship is where you want to be, and you don’t have to say too much to get them ready for championship, especially against their local neighbours as well, which gives a wee bit of a buzz. We regrouped after the league, gave a few days off, the boys played with their clubs and we’ve had two good weeks of training.”

McHugh was pleased with the impact off the bench against Longford, with the subs introduced contributing six points.

“I want to see boys taking their chances, and that is down to what they are showing me at training. Conor Dillon cut through them and that’s what you need, you need fresh legs when maybe people are starting to get a wee bit tired. He took the game to them and he puts himself in contention. I have a difficult job picking a team next week, but I want people chomping at the bit, ready to go and ready to put on the jersey and fight for every position on the field,” added McHugh.