McKinley laments slow start as focus turns to Dublin duel
Westmeath U20 football manager Kenny McKinley admitted his side’s sluggish start ultimately cost them as they fell to Meath last Wednesday evening in Kinnegad. But he praised the resilience of his players as they prepare for a winner-takes-all clash with Dublin tomorrow night (Wednesday).
Reflecting on the opening stages, McKinley didn’t shy away from where things went wrong. “Oh without a shadow of a doubt,” he said when asked if the opening 20 minutes were decisive. “I think we didn't score till the 20th minute and you just can't give a team like that, any team, that kind of head start and try to pin them back, it was just way too much.”
He admitted Westmeath’s defensive setup backfired. “I hold my hands up, I won’t say we tried to do something else; we tried to sort of take out some of their men, man-marking in a way which kind of made our defence sort of jaggedy and we just left too many holes, and they absolutely exploited the holes.”
Meath's early dominance, particularly down the right-hand side, was telling, with Michael McIvor a key figure for them. "We just left too much down the right-hand side of the pitch and it just got in behind us way too easily. We had loads of chances and we just didn’t come away with anything.”
McKinley contrasted this with their performance in the previous round. “I think in the first 10 or 15 minutes, we had three or four attacks and we just didn’t come away with anything and that’s just not good enough at this level.”
Despite the defeat, McKinley was proud of the second-half fightback. “You can take your hat off to the lads who never gave up; they just kept battling, kept trying. We got in for a couple of goal chances and they were slim goal chances, but they were goal chances at the same time, and we just didn’t get one. I thought if we could have got one, it would have put a huge bounce into us, but we just didn’t get it.”
Even as they battled, Meath always had a response and emerged as worthy winners. “If you look over the whole game, Meath were the better team, you just have to take it for what it was and deal with it. But again, we had too many scoring chances that we did not take, and you just can’t leave them behind at this level of football,” said McKinley.
Westmeath’s hopes of a comeback were derailed further when substitute Tom Bourke picked up a second yellow, followed by a red card in the second half. “We were getting that bit of momentum. That killed it; it sucked the life out of it, it sucked any air out of it, and it just made it too hard.”
Still, McKinley was encouraged by the overall impact of his subs. “I take my hat off to the guys, they never gave up, they kept trying. Every one of the guys we brought in from the subs actually did well when they came on.”
The glaring issue remained his side’s finishing, and now all eyes turn to Parnell Park for a crunch tie with Dublin (Wednesday, 7.30pm).
McKinley said: “At the end of the day, all you want to be doing is playing your last game of football with your destiny in your own hands. It's a massive, massive task going up there to play them on their home turf, but again, we’re not going to shy away from it.”
McKinley obviously knows Westmeath will need to bring their shooting boots to Dublin. "I don’t know what the stats were, but I know we missed a hell of a lot. When you sit back and do the video analysis, I’d be frightened by what we left behind ourselves today. You just have to roll up the sleeves and get back at it next Wednesday.”
He gave a positive update on midfielder Tadhg Baker, who picked up a knock. “I think he’s alright. I think he was awesome again; he put in some shift for us there in the middle, an outstanding game again, and I think it just caught up with him," said McKinley.
"It's a quick turnaround, so we have get all the boys on to the (physio) table and try to calm down any of those bruises that they have and get them ready and that’s it,” he added.