Westmeath U20s advance to All-Ireland 'B' decider
EirGrid All-Ireland Under-20 ‘B’ Football Championship semi-final
Westmeath 1-15 Limerick 2-5
Westmeath's U20 footballers qualified for next weekend’s All-Ireland ‘B’ final against Down, thanks to a dominant second half display against Limerick at a sun-drenched FBD Semple Stadium last Saturday afternoon.
A very small crowd was present for the first leg of a rare football double-header in Thurles and while there would have been a clear gulf in class evident for those who stayed on for the Kerry v Meath ‘A’ semi-final, the curtain-raiser did produce some fine passages of play and quality scores. Most of the good scores came from Damien Gavin’s victorious charges, who have put two Leinster championship defeats behind them – one of them at the hands of Meath – to pursue a decent consolation prize with admirable pride and determination.
Limerick led by 2-2 to 0-7 at the interval, the goals coming from midfielder Emmet Rigter and Darragh Murray (a penalty). However, Westmeath went into a lead they never looked likely to relinquish early in the second half and Jack Duncan's 48th-minute goal opened some much-needed daylight for the young men in maroon and white.
With Brían Cooney scoring six points (five frees), Daragh Lowry was also among those to impress for Westmeath. The all-action wing back from Moate All Whites has been consistently good for the county all year and Saturday was no exception, with his two well-taken first half points a bonus on this occasion.
In the other semi-final played in Cavan on Sunday, Down edged out Mayo by a single point, 2-10 to 0-15. At the time of writing, fixture details for the final had yet to be confirmed.
Scorers – Westmeath: B Cooney 0-6 (5f), J Duncan 1-0, D Lowry, S Ormsby, R Murray (1f) 0-2 each, T Baker, S Hanley, D Hall 0-1 each. Limerick: E Rigter (0-2f), D Murray (1-0 pen, 0-1f, 0-1‘45’) 1-2 each, C Ó Duinn 0-1.
Westmeath: Senan O’Driscoll; Adam Keane, Cormac Monaghan, Seánaí Bracken; Daragh Lowry, Jason Macken, Liam Daly; Tadhg Baker, Shane Ormsby; Jack Duncan, Brían Cooney, Eoin Bracken; Rory Cole, Shane Hanley, Ronan Murray. Subs used: Shane Corcoran for Cole (39), Tiarnán O’Donovan for E Bracken (54), Darragh Hall for Duncan (57), Matthew Thornton for Murray (60).
Limerick: Criag McInnes; Jamie Behan, John Whelan, Paddy Downey; Michael Kilbridge, Craig O’Connell, Jason Hassett; Emmet Rigter, Darragh Murray; Aaron Neville, Conall Ó Duinn, Cathal O’Mahony; Josh McCarthy, Ronan Quirke, Senan O’Brien. Subs used: Padraic Murphy for O’Brien (49), Bobby Smith for Quirke (49), Michael Long for Behan (54), Patrick Noonan Sweeney for Kilbridge (56), Tom Ryan for O’Mahony (60).
Referee: Christopher Ryan (Galway).
*See this week's print edition for more on last Saturday's game.