Luke Loughlin continues to impress for The Downs. Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile
Westmeath SFC Semi-Finals
The Downs 1-8 Coralstown/Kinnegad 0-10
St Loman's, Mullingar 2-12 Tyrrellspass 0-6
By Gerry Buckley
Reigning champions St Loman's, Mullingar will face The Downs next month in a repeat of the 2022 Westmeath senior football final (surprisingly won by The Downs) after they both came through their respective penultimate round games over the weekend.
The Downs, Leinster finalists two years ago under the stewardship of Lar Wall were one-point winners over last year's defeated finalists and their near-neighbours, Coralstown/Kinnegad, in Saturday's first semi-final which seldom reached any great heights.
The crucial moment of the game came just before the end of normal time in the first half when a rasping shot from close range by Brían Cooney came back off The Downs' crossbar, and a counter-attack ended with Ian Martin netting at the other end, to leave the 2022 champions ahead by 1-3 to 0-5 at the interval.
Inter-county star Luke Loughlin ended up as the game's top scorer with four points (three of them from play). His side failed to score in the final quarter and survived a late onslaught from Coralstown/Kinnegad for a deserved win. One of the losers' subs Wayne Fox was red-carded with just seconds remaining.
By far and away the most dominant side in the Lake County over the past decade, St Loman's, Mullingar will again start as favourites to win the Flanagan Cup after a surprisingly comfortable win against Tyrrellspass on Sunday.
The underdogs had the aid of a strong wind in the first half, but they made very poor use of it and had only one point from play (via long-time Westmeath regular defender Jamie Gonoud) to show for their efforts when they trailed by 0-7 to 0-3 at the interval. Four of the winners' points had come from play, two each from Danny McCartan and Ronan O'Toole.
St Loman's started the second half with a well-taken goal from Shane Dempsey after 90 seconds to all but seal their place in the final. To their credit, Tyrrellspass plugged away manfully, but a red card for David Hanlon added to their woes in the 42nd minute.
St Loman's never looked in any real danger of being overturned and they were able to clear their bench as they eased their way to another county final. A fortuitous goal from a 60-metre free by John Heslin in injury-time sealed the victory.
