'It looked like we were going out of the championship'

MATCH REACTION:When the losing manager lists several reasons why he thinks his team should have won then he can't be completely wrong, and in this case even the winning manager agrees.

“You wouldn’t have got much for our chances 10 minutes into the second half,” said Kerry manager Jack O’Connor, not denying his team were lucky to get out of Westmeath alive. “We went six down, facing a strong wind, and we’d a mountain to climb, so I don’t think we’d have got out of there without Darren O’Sullivan’s goal. So delighted, obviously, but still an awful lot of room to improve.”

O’Sullivan was taken off again only because O’Connor wasn’t sure if he’d last because of a hamstring injury. “It looked like we were going out of the championships, so we had to throw him in. Thankfully he did a good job for us while he was in there. We’d nine or 10 attacks in the first half, but were just a bit off it, weren’t fluid upfront, it’s been our problem all year. We’ll just hope the game brings us up to speed.

“Sometimes form can be just around the corner . . . It would have been easy to drop the heads after Westmeath got the penalty.”

For Pat Flanagan, the list of reasons for not winning did not include the lack of effort. “Always the story, for some of the teams trying to break through, but I can’t say anything else about the boys. They were absolutely exceptional. Every one of them out there believed they could win. I know not too many people did, but we did.

“We were just unfortunate that a couple of decisions went against us that changed the whole run of the game. We had Kerry on the back foot . . . they got a lift out there by a decision.

“I can guarantee you Kerry guys took far more steps, on numerous occasions, than Ronan (Foley) did on that occasion. I just felt we found it more difficult to get the decisions than Kerry did.”