THE TRANSFORMATION of Westmeath's football supporters into neutral championship observers came a little later than usual this summer, but this 10-point defeat by Offaly made it abundantly clear just how far their team has still to evolve before they can even think beyond the early stages of the competition.
The county does not seem short of emerging talent, but in Mullingar on Saturday the youngsters showed that they have yet to acquire the stomach required to overcome adversity. Barney Rock's side only seemed capable of holding their own for brief spells and when, at the start of the second half, they had a fleeting chance to haul themselves back into proceedings they lost their composure. With it went their hopes of a quarter-final clash against Wicklow next Sunday.
"That was what finished us, all right," said Rock afterwards, "we could have had 1-2 in a couple of minutes, instead we got nothing and paid for it.,, Offaly were fired up from the start, especially up front, where Peter Brady and Vi nay Claffey turned their superiority into points on the board.
A goal and two points from Brady in an eight-minute spell midway through the first half the goal brilliantly set up by Ciaran McManus's fine long pass put Offaly in the driving seat and helped them to a healthy six-point lead at the interval.
At that point the game already looked to be up for the home side, but the Edenderry man's influence on proceedings was greatly reduced just before the break with the arrival of Kenny McKinley from the bench.
Immediately after the break Westmeath enjoyed a period of dominance that could have turned the game for them. Instead, John Cooney's golden opportunity to find the net was stopped on the line by Larry Carroll, before Tom Cleary and Damien Gavin passed up chances for points.
There was still some 25 minutes to play at that point, but Westmeath seemed to have already settled for defeat. What possession they enjoyed through the closing stages was generally lost to Offaly's half-hack line, in which Tom Coffey and John Kenny were both powerful influences. Offaly, on the other hand, really should have extended their lead by more than a point over the closing quarter.
By then, however, the game had declined from a contest of moderate quality to a terrible scrap, with Offaly no longer producing any of the passing moves that had made them look the more likely winners in the early stages.
Certainly Tommy Lyons's team has yet to produce a really good performance over 70 minutes against solid opposition. With Wicklow and, most likely, Louth still standing between them and their ambition of a place in the Leinster final, that will have to change if they are to earn the opportunity to test their mettle against more substantial opposition.
