He left the Box-It Athletic Grounds with the GAAGO Man-of-the-Match award, but Ronan O’Toole knows Westmeath deserved to leave with so much more.
Leading by three points inside the closing 10 minutes, Dessie Dolan’s men looked set to cause a major Championship upset against Kieran McGeeney’s side in their own backyard.
A late goal from Conor Turbitt proved vital as Armagh claimed a 1-13 to 1-12 win in their Group Two opener.
Read more: Derry have “been through a lot” admits new boss Ciaran Meenagh after Monaghan draw
Westmeath were rated as 7/1 outsiders going into the game having finished fourth in Division Three before losing to Louth in the Leinster SFC quarter-final.
“I don’t think we did ourselves justice against Louth,” stated O’Toole.
“We played for 35 minutes, put in a good performance and then didn’t show up for the second half.
“We had four or five weeks to reset for this game and we put a lot of emphasis on it. I thought we controlled the game well for 60 minutes - even for 70 minutes.
“It was just that one ball at the end that went against us. We’ll take the positives from it and take it into next week.
O’Toole rejected the notion that Westmeath’s early season form might be attributed to the fact that their place in the Sam Maguire round-robin was already assured after their success in the inaugural Tailteann Cup last season.
“No, I think we just reset. I thought we fixed a lot of the problems,” added O’Toole.
“We played well for good parts of those games. I thought we controlled the ball well, but that’s football.
“We knew coming up here that Armagh are a good side. They were very unlucky not to win the Ulster Final. We knew their strengths, especially the depth in their squad. They put a lot of high balls in. That’s football and we’ll go again next week.”
Westmeath’s next outing sees them welcome Connacht champions Galway to Cusack Park on Saturday before taking on Tyrone at a neutral venue in their final game on the weekend of June 17/18.
“That’s the beauty of this new format, you’ve three guaranteed games,” added the Westmeath attacker.
“Whatever happens in this - you win, draw or lose and you go again next week.
“We’ll analyse this game and see what we did wrong, take the positives and go again.”
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