Mark McHugh was delighted to prove the doubters wrong after Westmeath were crowned Leinster football champions.

The Lakemen made light of their Division 3 status to beat Longford, Meath, Kildare and a hotly-fancied Dublin after extra-time to end a 22-year wait for the Delaney Cup.

“From the very first meeting we had, we envisaged Ronan Wallace walking up the steps of the Hogan Stand. There’s no point saying any different,” the victorious Westmeath manager told reporters at Croke Park.

“When Dermot McCabe left last year, I spoke to a few of the players about maybe me taking the job. I wanted to get their thoughts on it. I knew what was in that dressing-room. I believed in it.

“The boys have been to Donegal, where I live. They know I wouldn’t be travelling the three or four hours a night if I didn’t believe in them.

“I wasn’t going to come down to make up the numbers or feel like I couldn’t progress the thing. And I felt going into today’s game, people wrote us off again."

The 2012 All-Ireland SFC winner continued: “There were people saying, ‘Ah it’s a great fairytale story’ and that it was this and it was that, but ultimately Dublin will win. And that’s not the feeling we had in our dressing-room. We felt we were good enough to win it. I think we let our football do the talking there today and I don’t think anybody will write us off as badly in the future.

“We’re here to compete with anybody. We feel we have a dressing-room in there that’s fit to compete with anybody in Ireland.”

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