Westmeath 1-14 Longford 1-10
A late flurry of points saw Ger Egan-inspired Westmeath maintain their drive for promotion from Division Three with a hard-earned win over neighbours Longford in Mullingar.
John Heslin opened the scoring with a great point for Westmeath after 70 seconds followed by some wasteful shooting from wind-assisted Longford.
Daniel Mimnagh and Ger Egan (from a tricky free) traded points before Ronan O’Toole found the net in great style for Westmeath in the eighth minute.
However, Longford rattled off four unanswered points to level the scoring by the 18th minute. There was little between the teams in the second quarter and Westmeath led by 1-6 to 0-7 at the break.
O’Toole stretched Westmeath’s lead within a minute of the resumption of play but Longford drew level in the 41st minute when Michael Quinn netted.
Longford goalkeeper Paddy Collum player put his side in front for the first time (1-9 to 1-8) with a splendid free in the 48th minute.
However, quality points from O’Toole and Heslin, prior to four from Egan (three frees followed by a delightful finish from open play) wrapped up the points for Jack Cooney’s troops.
Longford were reduced to 14 men deep into added-time when Donal McElligott was red-carded.
WESTMEATH: E Carberry; K Daly, R Wallace, B Sayeh; K Maguire, F Boyle, J Dolan; S Duncan, D Corroon; J Gonoud, J Heslin (0-3), J Smith; R O'Toole (1-2), K Martin, G Egan (0-9, seven frees). Subs: N Mulligan for Gonoud (52 mins), T McDaniel for Smith (67 mins), N O'Reilly for Daly (70 mins).
LONGFORD: P Collum (0-1, free); P Fox, A Farrell, B O'Farrell; B McKeon, D McElligott (0-1, free), D Quinn (0-1); D Gallagher (0-2, two frees), M Quinn (1-0); P Lynn (0-1), J McGivney, D Mimnagh (0-3); D Doherty (0-1), C Berry, L Connerton. Subs: J Hagan for Doherty (44 mins), N Rabbitt for Connerton (57 mins), I O'Sullivan for Lynn (66 mins).
Referee: S Lonergan (Tipperary).
