Allianz National Hurling League Division 2A: Westmeath v Down (tomorrow, 2pm, Cusack Park)
A LEAGUE semi-final spot and a crack at earning promotion to Division One is the carrot at the end of the stick as Down bid to bounce back from the disappointment of defeat to Kildare when they travel to Mullingar tomorrow.
Having won the Joe McDonagh Cup, competed in the Liam MacCarthy Cup and campaigned in Division 1B last year, facing Westmeath represents a significant step up in class.
Defeat to Carlow – who Down beat on the opening weekend – ensured Westmeath haven’t run away from the rest in the promotion chase, but there is power and pace throughout their team, not least in full-back Tommy Doyle, Aonghus Clarke and the Doyle twins, Ciaran and Killian.
However, Niall O’Brien is struggling for fitness while it remains to be seen whether Davy Glennon is able to line out for the Lake County. The ex-Galway star came on at half-time in Westmeath’s victory over Kerry on February 6 but injury forced him off before the end, and he didn’t feature against either Carlow or Meath.
Down boss Ronan Sheehan is without long-term absentee Ruairi McCrickard, Barry Trainor is unlikely to feature due to a groin strain, while Darragh Mallon is still working his way back to fitness.
Otherwise, though, the Ardsmen are playing with a full deck – and Sheehan believes his side is capable of rising to the challenge.
“The way things stand at the moment, we’re going to have to win one of our remaining two games to get to a League semi-final,” said the Newry man.
“We’re hurling well, we’re performing well, so we’re in a pretty good space. While Sunday is probably a big step up, certainly we’d be looking to perform a lot better against Westmeath than we did against Offaly last year.
“But these guys have been playing in Division One, playing in the MacCarthy Cup, so it’s a big test for us.
“We believe we have the players to cause them problems and what this league has shown is that, on any given day, everyone can beat each other. There’s nothing in 2A, it’s probably the most competitive division in the whole National League.
“It would be good to get to the League semi-final as a sign of progression. We stayed in the division last year, this year we want to do a wee bit more than that, and a League semi-final would be concrete proof of that.
“It would also be another good game ahead of moving into the McDonagh Cup.”
A gale force wind in Ballycran saw Down trail by 15 heading into the break against Kildare last weekend and, while they just failed to close that gap, losing out by one in the end, Sheehan was still encouraged by the performance.
“We came in at half-time and we weren’t too despondent, believe it or not, because we had actually created 16 chances against the breeze.
“Unfortunately we only took six of them, but we were playing a lot better than the scoreline suggested, so we were fairly confident we would get back into the game.
“The two goals we gave them, especially the one from the free that bounced into the net from 100 yards away, that was really frustrating. It was probably a bit like the [2020] Christy Ring final where we felt we played the better hurling, but they got the goals at critical times and that got them over the line.
“The fact we already had four points on the board gave us that wee bit of a cushion to absorb the hurt of it I suppose, but we’re keen to get things back up and running this weekend.”
