Westmeath manager Ray Gavin is hoping his players can resurrect their Leinster MHC ambitions with a victory over Carlow at Cusack Park on Saturday (throw-in 1.30pm).

After their surprise defeat to Laois a fortnight ago when a four-point lead was surrendered in the last 13 minutes, the Lake County have a chance to redeem themselves against a Carlow team that overcame Kildare in their opening assignment. Gavin, who came close to leading Westmeath to a first ever Leinster MHC final appearance last year, is expecting a stern test from the Barrowsiders, for whom talented wing forward Marty Kavanagh scored a whopping 1-14 in their 1-19 to 2-13 victory over Kildare in Newbridge.

"He (Kavanagh) will take a lot of watching, but I'm sure Carlow have plenty of other players who are capable of stepping up to the plate," cautions Gavin, who is also a selector with the Westmeath senior hurling team.

"Newbridge is never an easy place to go to and get a win, but they managed it. Meath played Carlow in the Leinster League and their manager Brendan Fitzsimons was telling me afterwards they were a big, strong, physical team. Carlow have beaten us twice at senior level already this year, including the National League Division 2A final when we didn't perform at all, so hopefully we'll be able to get rid of this Indian sign they seem to have over us lately."

The Castletown-Geoghegan clubman admits it's a bonus for Westmeath to have home advantage for the game - the winners will also be at home to the losers of Dublin v Wexford in the next round on Saturday week, May 12.

"Cusack Park will definitely be a help to us - it makes a change from having to go down to Carlow, which always seems to be the case when we play them. But it won't be easy. They've beaten Kildare, who we struggled to get a draw with in the Leinster League. The fact that they're coming off a win and we're coming off a defeat makes it all the more difficult."

Gavin, whose selectors are Christo Murtagh (Lough Lene Gaels), Jody Murray (Castlepollard), Paddy Walsh (Clonkill) and Frank Mullen (St. Oliver Plunkett's), says his players are determined to bounce back from their defeat to Laois.

"We were back training on the Tuesday night after that game. There was no point sitting back and feeling sorry for ourselves," he explains.
"Despite making a good few mistakes, we still took a lot of positives from it. We had a number of lads playing at this level for the first time and they will be all the better for the experience. The important thing now is that we cut down on the mistakes. It wasn't the end of the world to lose to Laois, but if we lose again on Saturday, there will be no way back for us." Tweet

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