Pat Flanagan made no attempt to hide his disappointment after Westmeath were hit by a Louth sucker-punch in Navan.

Substitute Daniel O'Connor's goal five minutes into injury-time saw the Wee County snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and leaves the Lake County with a five-week break to the first round of the All-Ireland qualifiers.

"It is very, very difficult," the Westmeath manager said.

"It is extremely difficult when you consider that this team is only developing. We have new players from last year and we've lost all of the older players. We worked extremely hard to stay in Division 2 and we got that.

"The whole emphasis then turned to this match and making sure we got the win. I can't fault the boys, they played exceptionally well. We hit the crossbar (through Callum McCormack), they score with a toe-poke of a goal.

"The difference was that we're now out of the Leinster championship and that's very difficult to take. That's football, now we have to see if we can pick the boys up and get a few games in the qualifiers." Tweet

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