TG4 All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championship Qualifier:
Armagh v Westmeath (Saturday, Kingspan Breffni Park, 7.15pm)
ARMAGH go into Saturday evening’s TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship Qualifier with Westmeath as firm favourites to book their place in the last eight of the competition.
Their reward will be a quarter-final against Ulster champions Donegal in a repeat of the Division Two decider earlier this year, in which the Orchard county triumphed. However, before any thoughts can be directed to the next round, Armagh, while confident they can get a result at Kingspan Breffni Park, they will not take Westmeath for granted.
“Any All-Ireland quarter-final would be a tough game, but as things stand, all that matters is the Westmeath match, so as players we won’t allow ourselves to look beyond this test,” said captain Caroline O’Hanlon.
“We’ve felt for some time it’s all to play for in this summer’s Championship, but we won’t be in the shake-up if we take our eyes off the ball, for Westmeath are a strong team who will demand our full focus.”
The Orchard county have had the upper hand on their Leinster counterparts in recent meetings, including a 6-12 to 1-10 thrashing in the league this year. Their six-goal haul in that game came in the first half, effectively killing it off as a contest by half-time. While Westmeath still made the Division Two semi-finals, they lost out to Donegal.
They got back on track in the Leinster championship and recorded wins over Laois and Meath in a round-robin format to book their place in the decider, where they came up against Dublin. Although they didn’t cause an upset, with Dublin winning their fourth consecutive Leinster title, they did push the champions all the way with a spirited performance. They held Dublin scoreless for 14 minutes in the second half as they pulled back to within two points of them, only for the Dubs to finish strongly, winning 2-12 to 0-11.
Westmeath will take a lot of confidence and belief from their provincial Championship performances as they enter the All-Ireland competition at this last qualifying round stage. However, the fact they have not been able to defeat Armagh in recent years may prove a mental stumbling block and one James Daly’s side will be keen to exploit.
Armagh got their Championship campaign back on track with a 15-point win over Laois in their preliminary round qualifying match.
While it was important for Armagh to get a result and get back to winning ways after that disappointing loss of their Ulster crown to Monaghan in the provincial semi-final, they will need to show an improved performance in Cavan on Saturday.
