Westmeath will face a Leinster Senior Football Championship quarter-final clash against Offaly at Cusack Park on June 12.
The Faithful County, managed by former Westmeath boss Pat Flanagan, registered a fine preliminary round win against Longford at O’Connor Park.
Flanagan is looking forward to another interesting Midlands’ derby in Mullingar: “I have to be very careful what I say — it didn’t end the way it should have ended in my opinion,” Flanagan said following the Longford victory.
“Westmeath have gone from Division One to Division Four, but they got to a Leinster final last year. They have quality footballers, quality players. This is going to be a massive challenge for us going to Mullingar, trying to get a victory.”
Despite eventually being relegated, Westmeath did defeat Offaly in an Allianz Football League Division Three encounter on March 27. “We didn’t play well in our league game over there this year — it was probably our worst game of the season,” Flanagan admitted. “It’s going to be another step up. We have to see if we can get up to that level.”
The Longford success was Offaly’s first in the provincial championship since 2007, but Flanagan was not overly concerned about that issue: “I was trying to emphasise over the last four or five weeks that we were together for 18 months — anything that happened before that we had no control over,” he said.
“We only had control over the last 18 months. Others outside were talking about the nine years, we were only talking about last year and this year. It’s been a tough couple of weeks waiting for this game.
“Obviously, it’s a number of years since Offaly won a Leinster Championship game. It’s great to get that monkey off our back. We played some nice football at times. We’ve an awful lot of work to do, but we’re going in the right direction.”
Now Flanagan wants Offaly to make another positive statement in Mullingar next month: “We’ve been working together for 18 months. I can’t over-emphasise the amount of work these boys are putting in,” he said.
“They’re a great group of fellas to be involved with. We’ve had great fun while we’re doing it also. Hopefully we can press on from here. At the same time, it’s a big step for us. But unless we build on this win, it’s no good. It’s pointless unless we prepare ourselves as best we possibly can and be as good as we possibly can be in Mullingar. And if we’re as good as we possibly can be, I think we have a chance.”
