By John Harrington

Westmeath captain Ger Egan says the Lake County need to beat Mayo in Saturday’s Round 4B All-Ireland SFC Qualifier to prove they are now a serious team.

They’ve shown some consistency by reaching two Leinster Finals in row, but Egan thinks that achievement will count for little if they don’t now progress to an All-Ireland Quarter-Final.

“We need to go and take a big scalp now outside of Leinster,” he said. “Fermanagh was our opportunity last year and we didn't take it so if we're really to show that we mean business in championship we have to take a big scalp.

“But Mayo are an awesome team and we know what's ahead of us, we know what it's going to take and hopefully we can bring them improvements from the last day and hopefully be good enough because we want to get to an All-Ireland quarter-final, we think we're good enough but as I said we need a 70-minute performance, we need the game of our lives.”

Westmeath were well beaten by Fermanagh at this juncture of the Championship last year when they slumped to a 1-13 to 0-7 defeat. Egan believes they fell flat because they struggled to overcome the disappointment of their Leinster Final defeat to Dublin.

They suffered the exact same fate in the Provincial decider this year, but now they’re a year wiser and mentally stronger.

“Hopefully we can bring lessons,” said Egan. “As I said, it is hard to lose any final and to bring yourself back down and just to get yourself ready for another game straight away. I'm sure any of the provincial finalists would say the same.

“As I say, we're a year down the road, a year more experience. I think there's more hunger going into this game because we don't want the same to happen to us this year and to have a flat performance because if we do then it's not going to be anywhere near good enough.”

Westmeath were competitive for the first half of the Leinster Final against Dublin but fell away badly in the second-half. Egan admits they just weren’t good enough, but believes they can perform to a higher level against Mayo on Saturday.

“We weren’t ruthless enough and we were wasteful. We kicked a lot of wides in the first half, a lot of good opportunities, we had a couple of half goal chances, and you just need to take them against the top side. Every chance you get, every sniff you get and we didn’t and we paid for it. 

“The second half performance was just nowhere near good enough. I think we had a better performance this year (than last year) because we caused Dublin a few problems and I think we were still good defensively at the same time.

“Hopefully we can just take them improvement for the next day and take them towards Mayo, because Mayo are just as good as Dublin because they have been pushing them for an All-Ireland the last few years.”