Westmeath bid to banish league woes in Kildare clash

Westmeath will be seeking their first Leinster SFC win since 2022 when they face Kildare in their quarter-final showdown in Newbridge tonight (Saturday, throw-in 7pm).

In what will be Dermot McCabe’s first time to take charge of Westmeath in a championship encounter, the Lake County men will be looking to banish their league woes, having been relegated from Division 2.

It will also be the first championship game at the recently refurbished Cedral St Conleth’s Park and Westmeath will face a Kildare outfit likely to be backed by considerable support on their home turf.

Westmeath’s last Leinster championship win came against Longford in 2022 and, interestingly, this was followed by a semi-final defeat to Kildare at Croke Park (1-21 to 2-15 – see teams and scorers below). The last time Westmeath defeated Kildare in a championship game was in their 2016 Leinster semi-final.

Kildare’s current manager Brian Flanagan will be familiar with some of the Westmeath players, having served in the backroom team during Jack Cooney’s time in charge.

In last year’s Leinster SFC, Westmeath suffered a surprise defeat to Wicklow, just a week after defeating Down in the Division 3 league final. The previous year, Westmeath were unable to build on an excellent first-half display against Louth, with the side then managed by Mickey Harte securing victory with a strong comeback.

Kildare are going in the opposite direction to Westmeath in terms of Allianz Football League status, having secured promotion from Division 3. However, their defeats to Clare and Offaly (twice, including in the recent Division 3 final) suggest they could be vulnerable if Westmeath play to their full potential.

Westmeath’s defensive troubles this year add weight to the view that the biggest loss from last year’s missing contingent is defensive lynchpin and former skipper Kevin Maguire. In this regard, the unavailability of Charlie Drumm (overseas) and Jack Geoghegan (injured) are an additional worry.

See here for article with details of the Westmeath and Kildare team line-ups for tonight's game.

Westmeath captain Ronan Wallace hardly needs a reminder about the need for the team to drastically cut the concession rate that was evident during the league campaign.

“We’re putting up serious scores, but we are shipping them as well, which is not what you want to see. I think it’s something we have to work on. It’s hard, it’s 11 on 11, it’s a lot of one-on-one defending, so it’s an art in itself which I suppose over the last few years has been lost with teams having 13-14 men behind the ball where you can just defend space,” he said.

Westmeath manager McCabe believes Kildare’s strength around midfield will be difficult to counteract and, considering the fielding ability of Kevin Feely among others, it’s hard to disagree with this assessment.

“Kildare are a big, strong and physical team. If you talk about kickouts, they have a lot of big men in that area and that’s going to be a difficult challenge for us,” said McCabe, at a training session last week in TUS Midlands, Athlone.

“They have been putting up good scores. They have a lot of experienced players and some guys coming back from injury at the right time from their point of view. They are going to be a huge challenge and will probably have 80 per cent of the support in their grounds,” McCabe continued.

A win against Kildare would not only secure a place in the Leinster semi-finals; it would keep alive Westmeath’s hopes of competing in this year’s Sam Maguire Cup. A defeat and the Tailteann Cup beckons.

“I would like to think I’m quite a competitive person so, regardless of that situation, our aim is to win the game no matter who the opposition is,” McCabe replied when the issue of a double incentive is raised.

Flashback: 2022 Leinster SFC semi-final

Scorers - Kildare: J Hyland 1-4 (0-2f); B McCormack (1 mark) and D Kirwan (1f) 0-5 each; D Flynn 0-2 (1m); K Flynn, A Beirne, T Archbold, P Cribbin and N Flynn (f) 0-1 each. Westmeath: R O’Toole 1-3; S McCartan and J Heslin (1f) 0-4 each; J Gonoud 1-0; R Connellan 0-2; N Harte and L Loughlin 0-1 each.

Kildare: Mark Donnellan; Mike Joyce, Shea Ryan, Mick O’Grady; Tony Archbold, James Murray, Kevin Flynn; Kevin Feely, Kevin O’Callaghan; Alex Beirne, Ben McCormack, Paul Cribbin; Darragh Kirwan, Daniel Flynn, Jimmy Hyland. Subs used: Paddy McDermott for Cribbin, David Hyland for Joyce, Fergal Conway for O’Callaghan, Neil Flynn for Hyland, Aaron Masterson for Feely.

Westmeath: Jason Daly; Jack Smith, Kevin Maguire, David Giles; Nigel Harte, Ronan Wallace, Jamie Gonoud; Ray Connellan, Sam McCartan; Jonathan Lynam, Ronan O’Toole, David Lynch; Ger Egan, John Heslin, Alex Gardiner. Subs used: Luke Loughlin for Lynam, Sam Duncan for Gardiner, James Dolan for Lynch, Kieran Martin for Egan, Robbie Forde for Giles.