Westmeath 3-9 Meath 2-12
Swashbuckling Westmeath nearly upstaged the Royal County at Croke Park today, but instead must congratulate Meath on another famous comeback. The sides will meet in a replay next Saturday to see who will compete in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Playing with a slight wind at their backs, Westmeath ripped into their opponents from the outset and their ferocious tackling coupled with Meath’s shoddy marking enabled them to rack up scores by the minute.
When Paul Conway found himself in splendid isolation in front of Cormac O’Sullivan after just eight minutes, he slipped the ball easily past the goalkeeper to give Westmeath a 1-3 to 0-1 lead.
Evan Kelly replied immediately with a point for Meath, but Westmeath continued to dominate the middle of the park and lord it up front, and in the seventeenth minute Michael Ennis netted a deserved second goal for the underdogs. A quick free-kick from Ger Heavin caught the Meath defence unawares, and Ennis collected the ball and side-stepped the ‘keeper before tapping the ball home for a 2-4 to 0-2 lead.
If the Leinster champions were to stage another fight-back, it was time to start the climb out of the rut. The ever lively Ollie Murphy looked the most likely catalyst and it was he who grabbed Meath’s first goal when, after receiving a pass from Trevor Giles, he fired the ball low past Cathal Mullin to make it 2-6 to 1-3.
An amazing goal from Dessie Dolan, however, enabled Westmeath to go in at half-time with a lengthy lead. His real intention may have been to collect his fourth point of the game, but Dolan’s exquisite lob from a tight angle found the back of the net, leaving Sean Boylan to try and revive a team trailing 3-7 to 1-6 at the break.
Meath got the first three points of the second period and for a while it seemed Westmeath might lose their way. But another point from Dolan stopped the momentary slide. Openings for Westmeath, however, were much more difficult to come by than in the first half, though both Joe Fallon and Michael Flanagan squandered clear chances after excellent individual runs.
As tensions mounted, there were sporadic skirmishes around the park, and referee Michael Collins had to brandish his yellow card nine times, though Ger Heavin, in particular, may have merited more.
The contest in the final 20 minutes was scrappy, but it was Meath who slowly racked up the scores as Westmeath’s wide-tally mounted.
Then, in the last minute of normal time, Ollie Murphy, who had been anonymous for much of the second half, received the ball from Graham Geraghty and smashed into the net to bring the sides level at 2-12 to 3-9.