Laois taste defeat as Westmeath up the ante in second half to secure win

Westmeath took all two points on Sunday afternoon in a bitterly cold O’Moore Park on Sunday afternoon with a convincing six-point win against Laois. Playing with a strong wind in the first half, Laois failed to utilise it and despite carrying a one point lead into the half time break, Westmeath came good and they cruised to victory in the end with a Kieran Martin goal right at the death putting clear daylight between the sides in the end.

Westmeath 2-11

Laois 0-11

With a cold Winter sun belting down on O’Moore Park, it was somewhat misleading with underfoot conditions and a strong breeze, which Westmeath contended against in the first half leading to a scrappy opening half.

Despite the difficult conditions, it was a feisty affair and there was plenty of drama early on. John Heslin, Trevor Collins and John O’Loughlin all received early yellow cards for an off the ball incident with the latter needing his jersey replaced after sporting a huge rip down the front of his jersey after his tussle with Heslin.

Danny Bolger opened the scoring with a beautiful free from almost 55 metres out but Westmeath responded immediately.

When John Heslin’s wayward curling shot left his boot, it looked to have been sailing harmlessly wide but much to the delight of an unmarked Luke Loughlin who had taken a gamble and followed it in, it fell right down on top of the unmarked Westmeath attacker and he coolly palmed the ball past Bolger for the game’s opening goal.

Laois settled and they were back level within 10 minutes courtesy of points from Mark Barry and Eoin Lowry. They were the dominant side in the opening 25 minutes but their decision making let them down at times.

John Heslin restored the one-point Westmeath lead and 23 minutes in, they almost rattled the back of the net for a second time. Luke Loughlin split the Laois defence open with a dazzling run through the heart of the defence. He laid it off to Ray Connellan, but the angle was tight for the Athlone man and Bolger was quick off his line to save Connellan’s effort.

Ronan O’Toole and Eoin Lowry both traded scores, Lowry’s in particular a wonderful effort which curled in after a neat one-two with Evan O’Carroll.

It looked as if Westmeath would take a one-point lead into the break at half time, but Lowry equalised for Laois on the stroke of half time with another well taken point, his third of the day and Laois’ fifth and with the last kick of the half, Bolger floated over another tremendous long-range free to give Laois a 0-06 to 1-02 lead at Liam Devenney’s half time whistle.

Westmeath were level inside the first five minutes of the second half when Conor McCormack launched over a fine effort to level proceedings early in the second half as they looked to take full advantage of the wind blowing in their direction.

Laois were quick to regain the lead and Gary Walsh added his first of the day from a placed ball. Walsh added two more points, one coming from a free, but O’Toole, Heslin and David Lynch kept Westmeath ticking over and there was nothing to separate the sides in the opening 15 minutes of the second half.

Bolger was forced into action once again midway through the second half when Kevin Maguire fisted the ball across the square to Luke Loughlin who looked certain to raise the green flag, but Bolger got back across his goal to acrobatically deny Loughlin and send it over for a point instead.

Alex Gardiner and a Heslin free gave Westmeath a three-point lead with momentum now firmly in the Lake County’s corner.

Gary Walsh fired over another free to cut the deficit to two, but Gardiner regained the three-point lead with just eight minutes of play left.

The closing stages were all about Westmeath and they were content to hold onto possession. Gardiner and substitute Ross Munnelly traded points, but it was Westmeath who put the icing on the cake when Kieran Martin buried into an empty net to ensure they took the two points home.

SCORERS

LAOIS: Gary Walsh 0-4 (0-3f) Eoin Lowry 0-3, Danny Bolger 0-2f, Mark Barry and Ross Munnelly 0-1 each.

WESTMEATH: Luke Loughlin 1-1, John Heslin (0-2f) and Alex Gardiner 0-3 each, Kieran Martin 1-0, Ronan O’Toole 0-2, Conor McCormack and David Lynch 0-1 each.

LAOIS: Danny Bolger; James Kelly, Trevor Collins, Alex Mohan; Sean O’Flynn, John O’Loughlin, Gareth Dillon; Kieran Lillis, James Finn; Brian Byrne, Eoin Lowry, Patrick O’Sullivan, Mark Barry, Evan O’Carroll, Gary Walsh. Subs: Dylan Kavanagh for Trevor Collins (Blood sub 14-17), Dylan Kavanagh for James Kelly (50) Alan Farrell for James Finn (54), Daniel O’Reilly for Brian Byrne (57), Cormac Murphy for John O’Loughlin (63), Ross Munnelly for Mark Barry (69).

WESTMEATH: Jason Daly; Jack Smith, Kevin Maguire, Ronan Wallace; David Giles, Jamie Gonoud, Nigel Harte; Sam McCartan; Ray Connellan; Conor McCormack, Ronan O’Toole, David Lynch; Luke Loughlin, John Heslin, Alex Gardiner. Subs: Sam Duncan for Nigel Harte (54), Johnathan Lynam for Conor McCormack (60), Kieran Martin for Luke Loughlin (67), Darragh Seery and Robbie Forde for David Lynch and Alex Gardiner (75)