'We are so disappointed' - Dillon
Westmeath minor football manager Mick Dillon was bitterly disappointed with his team’s display against Offaly in the Leinster Minor Football Championship at Kinnegad on Tuesday.
The visitors emerged with a 3-12 to 1-10 victory in the end, but had led by 12 points at the end of the third quarter.
Defeat means Westmeath finished third in the group and now face a preliminary quarter-final clash with Carlow next Tuesday evening (Westmeath venue). Speaking after the match, Dillon expressed his disappointment with the Lake County’s overall display and felt the long break following the Dublin game contributed to a sluggish performance.
“We are so disappointed. We played Cork in the challenge last week and it wasn't a great performance. We had two great sessions after that. We thought we were just getting back to the pitch of it, but this is disappointing,” he said.
“I just think the two-week break absolutely killed us. We had huge momentum after the Dublin game. We had to let the players off and try to get them focused again,” he added.
The manager agreed that Westmeath’s passing game wasn’t fluent and Offaly took full advantage, constantly turning the ball over.
“The one thing that really annoys me is our turnovers. We got absolutely destroyed. Out of those turnovers, two goals came at a crucial time in the game. We just have to take this on the chin now and move on,” he said.
While conditions were a factor - Westmeath failing to use the strong breeze to their advantage in the first half and Offaly having it after the break - Dillon felt Westmeath’s overall display simply wasn’t up to standard.
“That performance is not good enough to do anything. We were very poor. There were very few players standing up there with what we know they can do. We were second best to most balls. There's no point in saying anything else,” he observed.
“And even when we had it, we ended up giving it back to them. They got two turnovers there late on and they got two scores. And I know we’re a very decent team, but we were so under par this evening,” he added.
What will hurt Westmeath more is that they came so close to qualifying directly for the quarter-final. The difference was just three points in the end. They will need to rediscover the kind of form they showed against Dublin and Longford if they are to get back into contention in this Leinster minor championship.