It has been an encouraging Allianz Football League Division Four campaign for Westmeath, who face Wexford at Innovate Wexford Park on Sunday afternoon, throw-in 1pm.
Wexford have already earned promotion and Westmeath are expected to join them following a string of positive results.
Since drawing with Carlow on the opening weekend, Westmeath have defeated Limerick, Leitrim, Waterford, and Wicklow. Last weekend’s win over Wicklow was satisfying because Westmeath eked out a valuable victory.
“It wasn't a good game as a spectacle for anyone, but with the results we fancied Carlow to win at home and Limerick to win at home,” Cribbin stated in an interview with Midlands 103 Sport. “We probably started defending a bit much. It is not pretty, but a lot of teams have beaten each other in this division. Getting lads focused for every game and making sure they are up for it is hard enough to do, but they put in a performance to get the result.
“There are no two ways about it, the football wasn't great, we got a result. The two points were what was important out there, we know we didn't play at our best. Sometimes if you keep winning when you aren't playing at your best it is a good sign too.”
How Westmeath reacted following the Carlow stalemate has delighted Cribbin.
“The Carlow game really made us aware that if you aren't really, really focused for every single game that you can lose points to any team in this division,” Cribbin remarked.
“A lot of them see Westmeath as a nice scalp to get, it is probably their All Ireland or Leinster final to go to beat Westmeath. Until the last five minutes we conceded four or five scores, but until that we had held them to eight or nine scores. We won well, from that point of view, we got the two points which was important.
“They are after putting themselves in a great position nearly guaranteeing promotion which is the main thing.
“We will treat the Wexford game the same as the other games. We will do our best to try to get two points. We'd like to cement our promotion 100 per cent next week, that is the way we will approach the game.”
