Westmeath v Laois Leinster Senior Championship Preview

The Lake County have named their team.

It's another local affair in the Leinster Senior Football Championship on Sunday as Westmeath and Laois do battle in Tullamore. 

The two sides are no strangers to one another having played at the same level of the National Football League in recent years and through various Leinster Championship meetings. 

Both suffered relegation in the league this year with Laois failing to win a game and the O'Moore county are nursing a number of injuries. 

Robbie Pigott, Donie Kingston and Michael Keogh will face late fitness tests but two players have already been ruled out in the form of Alan Farrell and Benny Carroll. 

Laois boss Mike Quirke has been lamenting the lack of a back door system this year this week, saying it's tough for any of the smaller counties in any provinces. 

He says it's been impossible to build confidence in the panel:

They'll line out as follows:

Niall Corbet; Trevor Collins, Seamus Lacey, Gareth Dillon; Daniel O'Reilly, Colm Begley, Patrick O'Sullivan; Kieran Lillis, John O'Loughlin; Sean Byrne, Evan O'Carroll, Eoin Lowry; Paul Kingston, Donal Kingston, Colm Murphy. 

Westmeath on the other hand have named their side. Lake County boss Jack Cooney has stuck with his experienced guns for the encounter. 

The starting team is: 

Jason Daly; Jack Smith, Kevin McGuire, Boidu Sayeh; James Dolan, Ronan Wallace, Jamie Gonoud; Ray Connellan, Sam Duncan; Denis Corroon, Ger Egan, David Lynch; Lorcan Dolan, John Heslin, Ronan O'Toole. 

Westmeath are also battling to restore confidence after solid performances against Meath, Mayo, Down and large spells of against Cork that ultimately yielded no wins. 

With another couple of bounces of the ball, they'd be coming into this tie strong favourites but Jack Cooney will know that championship has to be about results and not performances. 

 

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