Keogh’s goal seals deserved win for Dubliners over Westmeath

Walsh Cup senior hurling: Dublin 1-20, Westmeath 0-15

Gerry Buckley reports

Westmeath’s senior hurlers rounded off a very useful three-match campaign in the Walsh Cup in Kinnegad last Sunday afternoon in a disappointing fashion when they were decisively beaten by a strong Dublin team.

Given all the icy weather in the preceding days, conditions were reasonable for hurling for the time of the year. The Metropolitans led from start to finish and never looked in the slightest danger of being overturned, despite an improved showing from the hosts on the change of ends after a largely sluggish display in the first half.

A guaranteed ten matches await Joe Fortune’s charges over the next four months against almost all the top teams in the land, and these January games have been a great help to the management ahead of this vital period for Lake County hurling.

Improvement will unquestionably be needed against many traditional hurling counties with much larger picks, but survival in both the league and championship is surely the aim of all concerned. And it remains an achievable target.

Dublin, now under the tutelage of former Galway All-Ireland winning manager Micheál Donoghue, were straight out of the traps and they had three points on the board with less than five minutes elapsed, courtesy of Chris O’Leary, Cian Boyle and Davy Keogh (with the home team at fault for the second and third of these).

The always-prominent Donal Burke made it 0-4 to nil in the eighth minute, before Niall O’Brien opened his side’s account by slotting over a brace of fine frees.

Burke (open play) and O’Brien (a free) traded points, but the men in sky blue and navy proceeded to rattle over six unanswered points between the 19th and 27th minutes, via Aidan Mellett, Burke (two frees), Dara Purcell (two), and Keogh.

O’Brien dissected the posts from a long-range free to break the monotony on the half-hour mark. Westmeath, who had seldom threatened to open their account from play, did so belatedly at the end of normal time when Davy Glennon found the range. An instant reply from Boyle left Dublin ahead by 0-12 to 0-5 at the interval.

A Burke brace (the first a classy score from near the sideline) and a neat score from Colin Currie (albeit the losers appeared to have deserved a free seconds earlier) stretched Dublin’s lead to ten points, before their opponents began to put some decent passages of play together.

They were rewarded with points from the sticks of Mark Cunningham (a newcomer who has shown up well in January), Jack Galvin and Joey Boyle. Luke McDwyer and Galvin traded points, as did Galvin (a superb strike) and Keogh.

Westmeath now trailed by seven points (0-17 to 0-10), but any lingering doubts about the outcome were dispelled in the 57th minute when McDwyer teed up Keogh who fired the sliotar to the centre of the net.

Subs were coming on in large quantities at this juncture making for a disjointed conclusion. Glennon and Paul Crummey exchanged points prior to a second score from Boyle and a hat-trick from Killian Doyle – two frees and a typically classy point from play (following a brief skirmish). Ciaran Foley and Fergal Whitely wrapped up the winners’ total with time almost up.

Scorers – Dublin: D Burke 0-6 (3f), D Keogh 1-3, C Boyle and D Purcell 0-2 each, C O’Leary, A Mellett, C Currie, L McDwyer, P Crummey, C Foley and F Whitely 0-1 each. Westmeath: N O’Brien 0-4f, K Doyle (2f) and J Galvin 0-3 each, D Glennon and J Boyle 0-2 each, M Cunningham 0-1.

Dublin: Eddie Gibbons; John Bellew, Eoghan O’Donnell, Ronan Smith; Conor Donoghue, Conor Burke, Daire Gray; Aidan Mellett, Chris O’Leary; Donal Burke, Davy Keogh, Colin Currie; Dara Purcell, John Hetherton, Cian Boyle. Subs used: Luke McDwyer for Boyle (inj., 41), Glen Whelan for Hetherton (50), Fergal Whitely for D Burke (53), Johnny McGuirk for Donoghue (58), Paul Crummey for Purcell (58), James Madden for Smith (60), Iain O’Heithir for Bellew (63), Ciaran Foley for Keogh (63), Sean Currie for O’Leary (68), Dara Power for Mellett (68).

Westmeath: Noel Conaty; Gary Greville, Tommy Doyle, Adam Ennis; Jack Galvin, Kevin Regan, Aaron Craig; Mark Cunningham, Shane Clavin; Niall Mitchell, Davy Glennon, Eoin Keyes; Eoin Daly, Niall O’Brien, Ciaran Doyle. Subs used: Joey Boyle for Daly (h-t), Killian Doyle for C Doyle (h-t), Conor Shaw for Greville (h-t), Johnny Bermingham for Craig (51), Darragh Egerton for Ennis (51), Shane McGovern for Clavin (55), Jack Gallagher for Glennon (58), Rian Holding for Galvin (63), David Devine for Cunningham (63), Shane Williams for Keyes (65), Eamonn Cunneen for Mitchell (68).

Ref: Kevin Brady (Louth).