Westmeath facing crunch league game against Cavan
Westmeath are facing a must-win game against Cavan in Division 2 of the Allianz Football League on Sunday at TEG Cusack Park.
The Lake County have lost all three of their games to date, with Louth, Monaghan and Cork all proving too strong for Dermot McCabe’s charges. It leaves Westmeath pointless at the bottom of the table, with Cavan, Down and Louth all ahead of them on two points each.
Westmeath have produced some promising performances to date, including last Saturday when they scored 3-17 against Cork and lost by just a point. Sam and Danny McCartan, Ronan Wallace, Matthew Whittaker, Luke Loughlin, Conor Dillon, Robbie Forde and Brandon Kelly all featured on the scoresheet for the visitors.
Westmeath recovered impressively from being six points adrift to trail by just a point at the break, 1-9 to 1-10.
It was tit for tat in the second half and Westmeath forged 2-16 to 2-14 ahead following Sam McCartan’s goal. The match was level with five minutes remaining, but Cork got their third and decisive goal to take the spoils.
Westmeath have averaged almost 24 points per game, but are still chasing that elusive victory.
There is little doubt that the loss of a number of established players this year - including John Heslin, James Dolan, Kevin Maguire, Ronan O’Toole, Sam Duncan, Andrew McCormack and David Lynch - has been a major factor in Westmeath’s unfortunate losing streak.
In addition, Ray Connellan and Brian Guerin have been absent through injury for the last two games and are not expected to feature on Sunday.
New Westmeath manager Dermot McCabe is coming up against his native county on Sunday which adds to the intrigue and it is certainly a key game for both sides. Throw-in time at TEG Cusack Park is 2pm.
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