Westmeath give Tipperary a real fright

For the second league game running, Westmeath’s senior hurlers gave one of the country’s top teams lots to think about, a somewhat experimental Tipperary team needing a decidedly fortunate late own goal to finally see off Joe Fortune’s wonderfully spirited charges by 3-25 to 2-21 in ideal conditions in FDB Semple Stadium last Saturday afternoon.

Despite conceding a brace of rapid-fire goals to Mark Kehoe late in the first half, the men in maroon and white – to their enormous credit – refused to capitulate, and they garnered a lot of new admirers in the almost exclusively local attendance of 1,962 in the ‘home of hurling’.

‘Moral victories’ are fine and dandy, of course, and the real challenge now for this very committed management and group of players is to eke out at least one ‘proper’ victory against the two more beatable teams remaining (Antrim and Dublin) in this very tough group and, even more importantly, to go full blast in their attempt to regain the Joe McDonagh Cup in what is a competition of equals. After the low of Salthill just a matter of a few weeks ago, optimism levels have greatly increased in Lake County hurling circles.