Allianz Football League Division 2 North

DOWN 0-13 WESTMEATH 1-9

By John Harrington at TEG Cusack Park

A plucky final quarter comeback from Westmeath came up just short against Down in today’s Allianz Football League Division 2 North clash at TEG Cusack Park.

The Mourne men seemed set for a comfortable enough victory when they led by 0-11 to 0-3 midway through the second-half, but a thumping goal by substitute Fola Ayorinde lit the fuse for a Westmeath revival.

They'll believe too that they could have snatched the win, with a couple of glorious goal-chances going abegging late in the game.

In the end, Down were very relieved that an injury-time point by Barry O’Hagan made sure of a victory that clinches third place in the group.

You couldn’t have predicted the match would end in the welter of excitement it did, because for most of the game it was fairly flat with Down much the better team.

The Ulster side moved the ball forward with intent from the start, and when they got inside the Westmeath half the intelligent movement of their inside forwards meant there was always an option to hit with diagonal passes.

Caolan Mooney in particular is a sweet striker of the ball, and his punched deliveries into players like Paul Devlin, Corey Quinn, and Conor McCrickard would become a highlight of the first half.

It was Quinn who scored the first two points of the match, the first a free and the second a sweet one from play when he turned quickly got a shot off with his right foot in one fluid motion.

The Down inside forwards were working well off one another, and Devlin was the creator for the next two scores, points from Pierce Laverty and Quinn.

Westmeath were struggling to make any sort of impression on the game but they very nearly scored a goal against the run of play when they ripped open the Down defence with a fine passing move that ended with James Dolan bearing down on goal.

He looked sure to score, but his fiercely struck drive was brilliantly saved by Down defender Brendan McCardle who came from seemingly nowhere to fling himself in front of it.

Westmeath finally got off the mark after 15 minutes when John Heslin pointed a free, but it didn’t signal a sea-change in the flow of the game.

Down were simply playing better football and two really well-worked points by Liam Kerr and Caolan Mooney underlined the gulf that existed between the two teams.

Westmeath failed to score a single point from play in the first half, and by the half-time break found themselves trailing 0-9 to 0-3 which in no way flattered Down.

Things didn’t get much better for Westmeath in the third quarter. They lost Ronan O’Toole for 10 minutes due to a black-card, and continued to struggle to make any impression against the well-drilled Down defence.

With a decent buffer on the score-board Down were now content to defend in numbers and hit Westmeath on the break, and pointed frees from Devlin and Quinn stretched their advantage to eight points.

Westmeath finally gave their management team something to smile about when substitute Ayorinde scored a cracking goal not long after his introduction.

Jack Smith picked him out with a well-time pass and the athletic Ayorinde surged through the Down defence and then finished to the corner with real panache.

Westmeath could have had another goal four minutes later when a charging James Dolan was hauled down by Barry O’Hagan for the concession of a penalty and a black-card.

John Heslin’s penalty was well-struck, but Down goalkeeper Rory Burns guessed right and pulled off a really brilliant save as he dived at full stretch to his left-hand side.

Westmeath were given some consolation when Ger Egan pointed the resulting ’45, and generated more momentum a couple of minutes later when Heslin atoned for his penalty miss with a fine point from play.

There were just four points between the teams now with 13 minutes to play, and Westmeath could easily have wiped out that deficit altogether had they taken a couple of glorious goal-chances that came their way.

First, Ronan Wallace shot straight at Rory Burns when he perhaps could have squared the ball to Ger Egan.

Then in the space of a mad-cap few seconds a cluster of Westmeath players got in each other’s way when trying to fist the ball to the net and moments after that another fisted effort came back off the cross-bar.

But, still, they kept coming and three points in a row by Ronan O’Toole, Brandon Kelly, and Heslin meant the gap was down to just one point when eight minutes of injury-time flashed up on the fourth official’s board.

Then came Barry O’Hagan’s chance to atone for his black-card and he did so in style, clipping a point on the run that would ultimately prove crucial.

Another free from Heslin reduced the gap to the minimum again, but they couldn’t muster one last charge to find the equaliser.

Scorers for Down: Corey Quinn 0-7 (4f), Paul Devlin 0-2 (2f), Pierce Laverty, Ryan McEvoy, Liam Kerry, Caolan Molloy all 0-1.

Scorers for Westmeath: John Heslin 0-6 (5f), Fola Ayorinde 1-0, Ronan O’Toole 0-1, Brandon Kelly 0-1, Ger Egan 0-1 (45)

DOWN: Rory Burns; Peter Fegan, Brendan McArdle, Gerard Collins; Pierce Laverty, Darren O’Hagan, Daniel Guinness; Jonny Flynn, Ryan McEvoy; Liam Kerry, Ceilum Doherty, Caolan Mooney; Paul Devlin, Corey Quinn, Conor McCrickard. Subs: Thomas McInerney for Brendan McCardle (34), Barry O’Hagan for Paul Devlin (45), Liam Middleton for Ryan McEvoy (48), James Guinness for Corey Quinn (60), Kevin McKernan for Darren O’Hagan, Stephen McConville for Conor McCrickard (both 69)

WESTMEATH: Jason Daly; Jack Smith, Kevin Maguire, Boidu Sayeh; James Dolan, Ronan Wallace, Jamie Gonoud; Sam Duncan, Ray Connellan; David Lynch, Sam McCartan, Ger Egan; Ronan O’Toole, John Heslin, Luke Loughlin. Subs: Denis Corroon for David Lynch (34), Kieran Martin for Sam McCartan (ht), Brandon Kelly for Luke Loughlin, Fola Ayorinde for Sam Duncan (both 47), Conor Coughlan for Jack Smith (60), Tommy McDaniel for Kieran Martin (63)

Referee: Sean Lonergan (Tipperary)