When Westmeath take the field for tomorrow afternoon's Bank of Ireland Leinster championship encounter with Meath, the most fitting musical accompaniment would be something eerie like a horror flick soundtrack. There's been too much upbeat sentiment and rising expectation about the whole enterprise. Unprecedented underage success, league promotion, a rollercoaster Division Two final win over Cork and all the negativity leaking out of Meath have combined to create an optimistic consensus: watch Westmeath.

But there's a nagging sense of menace amidst all that youthful abandon. Meath have sucked dry the bones of fresh young contenders in the past. Westmeath are at peril not because they're over-rated but because they are so promising. Under manager Luke Dempsey, who masterminded the minor and under-21 success in 1995 and 1998, the seniors have shown good progress this year. The chirpier they are, the more hideously they die. Cut.

Ger Heavin captains Westmeath this afternoon. He's been around long enough to recognise the warning signs when Meath are being talked down. "It's crazy. Sean Boylan is always going to put out feelers but they won't be far off the team that won the All-Ireland. They'll be grand come the day. The last time they were this quiet they won the All-Ireland."

Back in the early 1990s, with Matt Kerrigan as manager, Westmeath also had something going for them. Heavin remembers the moments when the team perched on the verge of significance. In 1994 they beat then All-Ireland champions Derry in a league quarter-final in Enniskillen. The Croke Park semi-final saw them run eventual winners Meath to a tightly contested four points. "We didn't build on it," he says. "There wasn't enough belief or confidence. Mattie Kerrigan did very well but left in 1995, maybe feeling he couldn't make much more progress. I think we needed to take a scalp. We failed poorly and it knocked the stuffing out of us."

There was also an element of overambition. Before the 1994 B All-Ireland final against Carlow, Kerrigan was dismissive "saying he was interested in the Leinster championship and getting promotion rather than B competitions".

Previously the team had refused to play extra-time in an O'Byrne Cup final because of an important league fixture which was imminent. In the winter gloom Wexford got handed the trophy for free. In retrospect Heavin's not sure that those distant priorities were correct.

"At the time we had important league matches coming up but we should have tried to pick up some silverware. It's great for morale. Even a Feis Cheoil medal! This year in the league, we got promoted but decided as we were then in the semi-finals that we should try and pick up some silverware. I think that was the right course."

That, he says, is as far as the celebration goes. "We won't remember a lot about the Division Two when we play Meath. It was a very loose game with a lot of goals. We didn't go mad afterwards. That night we went to Mullingar, to the Greville Arms who sponsor us. There we had a private room and a few drinks. There was no open-top bus or bringing the trophy around schools."

Unlike the All-Ireland medallists around him in the dressing-room, he never had a lot of early encouragement in his career. A talented and high-scoring corner forward, he had a prolific partnership with Larry Giles in the other corner but adrift on a team making little progress, he couldn't keep frustration at bay indefinitely. "When you're young you play on and always think that in a couple years, things will come good but eventually it becomes frustrating and there have been times you'd wonder what you're doing.

"Against Armagh (in the league), we were beaten - well beaten, physically overpowered. I remember thinking this doesn't look good.

"But a few of us talked about it and we bounced back. We improved but at times it's difficult."

There is one major difference about tomorrow compared to Westmeath's past. The new championship format means they will be guaranteed at least one more match. Maybe this will reduce the nervous inhibition that sometimes afflicts emerging teams.

The longer you postpone the ending, the happier it is.

Music swells.