Westmeath returned to Division 2 of the National Football League a year after going up to Division 1 as champions after a very disappointing campaign for Tomas O Flatharta's injury-hit charges. The Westmeath footballers face a battle to salvage their season after a disastrous National Football League Division 1 campaign which saw them surrender their hard-earned top-flight status with a whimper. After last year's heroics, when they defied the odds to win Division 2 and subsequently gave both Dublin and Tyrone the fright of their lives in the championship, no-one could have envisaged life in Division 1 being so tough, but deprived of many of their star names through injury, the Lake County's lack of strength in depth was brutally exposed by the heavyweights of Gaelic football. Westmeath needed to have all their best players available to avoid a quick return to Division 2, and sadly this proved to be the case. While the youngsters who came in gave everything they had, it was asking an awful lot of them to compete against the seasoned campaigners of Kerry, Tyrone and Galway. Such was the extent of Westmeath's injury crisis that manager Tomas O Flatharta was forced to blood up to seven under 21 players. Stalwart performers such as Martin Flanagan, David O'Shaughnessy, Fergal Wilson, Damien Healy and Alan Mangan didn't feature in the league campaign at all, while hamstring injuries ruled Dessie Dolan and Donal O'Donoghue out of most of the campaign as well. These injuries left the Lake County facing a mission impossible, and their relegation was confirmed when Donegal consigned them to their sixth straight defeat in the penultimate round at Cusack Park. And worse was to follow when they lost to Dublin by 27 points in their final outing at Parnell Park - the Lake County's heaviest defeat since the 2-25 to 2-1 drubbing at the hands of Offaly in the 1990/91 NFL. The only consolation for Westmeath in the wake of their relegation is that they have two months to regroup before they face either Longford or Wicklow in the Leinster championship on June 13. In recent seasons, Westmeath have been one of the first teams into championship action in early May, and had that been the case again this year, they would be extremely vulnerable, especially if their injured players hadn't returned. The tone for the league campaign was set when Westmeath lost their opening game to Galway by 0-11 to 2-10 at Cusack Park. Despite missing a first half penalty, the Tribesmen went into the break leading 0-7 to 0-5, but after Michael Meehan extended the visitors' lead on the restart, points from Dessie Dolan, impressive newcomer Thomas McDaniel and Denis Glennon brought Westmeath level. When Glennon knocked over his second successive score to give Westmeath the lead, and Galway were then reduced to 14 men following the dismissal of midfielder Barry Cullinane, it looked as though it was going to be the Lake County's day. However, within a matter of minutes, substitute Jonathan Ryan and Michael Meehan struck for Galway goals to end the game as a contest. Things got a whole lot worse for Tomas O Flatharta's side when they crashed to a 0-7 to 1-18 defeat to Derry at Ballinascreen. Two years ago, Westmeath stunned the Oak Leafers in Celtic Park, but a repeat result never looked likely on this occasion, although the visitors were still in with a shout at half-time when they trailed 0-5 to 0-9. The second half, however, turned out to be a nightmare for Westmeath who had no answer to the scoring power of Paddy and Eoin Bradley. Time and again, the visitors' defence - which had earned a reputation as the meanest in the country in 2008 - was ripped apart and Eoghan Brown put the seal on an emphatic victory for Derry with a goal in the closing stages. There was further woe for Westmeath when they lost to Mayo by 0-8 to 1-13 in Charlestown. On a wet and bitterly cold afternoon in the West, the Lake County started brightly and led by 0-2 to 0-1 at the end of the first quarter. But a Trevor Mortimer goal after 20 minutes turned the game on its head, and Mayo went on to lead by 1-6 to 0-2 at half-time. The absence of key forwards like Dessie Dolan, Fergal Wilson, Dermot Bannon and John Smyth left Westmeath terribly short of firepower and Denis Glennon was forced to plough a lone furrow up front, while three of the visitors' scores came from defenders Michael Ennis (two) and Francis Boyle. To their credit, Westmeath rallied in the second half, but a lack of belief and conviction meant that Mayo's half-time advantage was never seriously threatened. When Westmeath supporters look back on this year's league in years to come, the game they will remember most is the meeting with Tyrone at Cusack Park. Producing by far their best performance of the year to date, the home side were just seconds away from a famous victory when Colm Cavanagh broke their hearts with a last-gasp goal which handed the All-Ireland champions a win they scarcely deserved. Tyrone raced into an early 0-4 to 0-0 lead before a Denis Glennon-inspired Westmeath rallied to trail by 0-7 to 0-9 at half-time. Despite playing into a stiff breeze on the resumption, the maroon and whites bossed possession and gained a strong foothold in the half back and midfield areas. A 45th minute Denis Glennon point left just one between the sides before the same player scored a brilliant individual goal in the 51st minute. He collected Doran Harte's pass on Tyrone's 45-metre line, turned on a six pence to evade Conor Gormley and raced clear before planting the ball in the roof of the Tyrone net. The sides were level twice in the run-in before Michael Ennis thought his 69th minute fisted goal, which put Westmeath three points clear, had won them the game. But Tyrone aren't All-Ireland champions for nothing, and after they shot two quick-fire points to reduce the deficit to the minimum, Cavanagh finished Conor Gormley's rebounded effort to the net to give Mickey Harte's men an unlikely 1-15 to 2-10 victory. A daunting trip to Kerry was the last thing Westmeath needed after such a shattering loss and, despite a gutsy performance, they were eventually overrun by nine points, 1-12 to 0-6. The Lake County side belied their lowly league status early on and trooped in at the interval with a 0-5 to 0-4 advantage - 0-4 of their tally coming from Denis Glennon. But the scores dried up in the second half as Kerry surged clear. However, it would have been a lot closer had Glennon not missed a 57th minute penalty when just three points separated the sides. Gary Connaughton also saved a penalty at the other end, but he was powerless to stop Kieran Donaghy from raising the only green flag two minutes from the end. Whatever hopes Westmeath still had of avoiding the drop were well and truly dashed when they succumbed to Donegal by 1-7 to 0-15 at a rain-soaked Cusack Park. Denis Glennon broke the deadlock after three minutes, but Donegal returned five unanswered points and led by 0-6 to 0-3 with a minute of the first half remaining. Niall Kilcoyne then swooped for a goal to bring the home side onto level terms, only for David Walsh to reply with a point two minutes into injury-time to give Donegal a 0-7 to 1-3 lead at the break. Westmeath regained parity nine minutes into the second half, but too many handling errors and poor finishing were eventually punished by the more purposeful and physically stronger visitors. The defeat meant Westmeath only had pride to play for when they met Dublin in their final league outing at Parnell Park on Easter Sunday. Speaking after the Donegal game, Tomas O Flatharta had already turned his attention to the championship. "It is disappointing that we have gone back down today," he admitted. "Today itself was disappointing but we were in the game for good periods, especially coming up to half-time when we pulled it back and in the second half we were still there. "But the key difference was that we had a few scoring chances and we didn't take them, whereas at the other end they used their experience and got their scores and pulled away from us in the end. "It is a tough day for us, but it is vital that the team stays together now and stay united and look forward to the championship in nine weeks and hopefully the young players will have learned from this league campaign." Tweet

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