‘It’s out of our control now’

The fact that Westmeath’s promotion destiny is now out of their own hands was central to Jack Cooney’s thoughts after last Sunday’s Allianz NFL Division 3 draw against Fermanagh.

“I think the big thing is that it’s out of our control now. All we had to do is win our last two games and we were in control. At least we have given ourselves something to fight for with that draw,” said the Westmeath manager.

Westmeath must now defeat Antrim at Corrigan Park in their last Division 3 game next Sunday (2pm) and hope that Limerick fail to beat Fermanagh.

“We’re relying on other results but I think Division 3 is so tight that it’s very difficult to know what’s going to happen. All we can do is try and bounce back and put in a good performance in Belfast and go after the win. Antrim will be in the same boat,” Cooney said.

Overall Cooney was “disappointed” with last Sunday’s draw and, understandably, he pointed to the “really good chances” his side failed to take.

“We were hanging on a little bit and then we got our noses in front. We created a couple of chances near the end. It’s hard to process it at the moment; at least we didn’t lose anyway,” said Cooney.

“We created great chances to score and lads uncharacteristically just didn’t convert them. That was probably the story of the game. Even going in at half-time, we probably left a few scores out there.

“Having played well, we would have been disappointed not to have three or four more scores on the board. It’s something for us to reflect on and learn from.

"In nearly every game in the league when you start running in subs, it loses structure and it gets a little bit ragged. “I thought when we were a point down, the lads showed really good character and created good chances to try and win it. Unfortunately, we didn’t get over the line,” continued the Coralstown/Kinnegad man.

There is even more at stake than normal this year as teams battle to earn a place in Division 2 for next year. This will also secure a place in the All-Ireland qualifiers for teams who fail to reach the provincial final, as opposed to going into the second tier Tailteann Cup. When it was put to Cooney that the clash with Antrim is a huge game next Sunday, he responded succinctly: “They’re all big, they’re all huge.”

Cooney continued: “We’ll reflect on this game; we’ll sit down and watch the video. We’ll prepare for Antrim in Belfast next Sunday and we look forward to that.”

As for the goal chances spurned by his side, unsurprisingly Cooney didn’t want to apportion culpability to any individual players.

“At the end, the game went a bit ragged on us and that seems to be a general trend when you’re running in subs and you’re chasing the game.

“You could see the lads wanted to change it around. It just wasn’t to be but I wouldn’t be blaming anybody for missing anything. The lads put in a huge effort and they are disappointed in there in the dressing room.”

Ronan Wallace, one of the leading lights of Westmeath’s league campaign, didn’t start last Sunday’s game due to concern over a hamstring injury. However, Wallace did come on as a substitute and came through unscathed.

“It was good for him to come through. He picked up a knock last week against Limerick and he didn’t train during the week,” said Cooney on Wallace’s injury. “We were monitoring him and he came through a fitness test before the game and that allowed us to bring him off the bench.”

As for James Dolan and Ger Egan, Cooney insisted that the Antrim game will be too soon for the valuable stalwarts to be involved.

“Their rehab from injury has been slow and tedious and that’s in the hands of the physios and medical personnel and we wouldn’t go against their word for a second. They are making progress and hopefully they will be back on the training pitch sooner rather than later,” he said.

There were a few contentious refereeing decisions on Sunday last, with Westmeath receiving two black cards, and Fermanagh were incensed over a ‘point’ that wasn’t awarded in the closing stages.

Asked about the disputed calls, Cooney said: “You just get wrapped up in the game. I didn’t see the Tooler (Ronan O’Toole) incident, it’s difficult to call those. I thought in general the referee did a pretty decent job; he’s not going to get every decision right.

“But I think we shouldn’t be relying on the referee’s decisions; we had plenty of opportunities to take control of the result ourselves and we didn’t manage to do that unfortunately,” he added.