Smith’s goal decisive as Westmeath lose again

Cavan 1-22, Westmeath 0-21

Gerry Buckley

Westmeath let a 12-point half-time lead slip in galling fashion on a heavy pitch in TEG Cusack Park last Sunday afternoon, manager Dermot McCabe's side unable to put away his native county Cavan in a pulsating and incident-packed game, with the Lake County’s fourth successive defeat looking fatal in the fight to remain in Division 2 of the National Football League.

The match had been in doubt all morning in foul weather in Mullingar, and the pitch was only deemed playable by referee Derek O’Mahoney shortly after 12 noon. Thankfully, there were no issues with the game being completed once it commenced, much to the relief of the travelling blue and white-clad fan base – as ever, outnumbering Westmeath’s paltry support at the latter’s home venue.

The new rule ‘enhancements’ are far from perfect – witness the confusion in many quarters as to the ‘3 v 3’ rule when a team is down a player, or two – but there seems to be zero chance of a dull encounter under the FRC’s enhancements.

However, the bottom line is a very frustrating one from a Westmeath perspective. Despite playing consistently well – and often very well, as was the case in the first half last Sunday – the men in maroon and white prop up the table after four straight defeats, and the Division 3 trapdoor looms large. And this despite a scoring difference of only minus 15.

Cavan won the toss, but they allowed Westmeath to have the aid of a strong wind blowing towards the scoreboard end of the ground. Raymond Galligan’s charges opened the scoring via James Smith after 80 seconds. The same player scored his side’s second point all of 16 minutes later, but in between the two scores Westmeath went on a scoring spree registering a very impressive 0-12 in the process. Eight of these came via four two-pointers – two of them from Danny McCartan frees (with Cavan paying for some indiscipline with the ball regularly advanced 50 metres) and the other two from Luke Loughlin (a free and open play). The other one-pointers came courtesy of Brían Cooney, Conor Dillon, Kevin O’Sullivan (after Matthew Whittaker’s goal attempt had been saved), and Brandon Kelly.

Team captain Ronan Wallace stretched the home team’s lead with another two-pointer from play in the 20th minute. Niall Carolan had lukewarm penalty claims waved away, before Gearóíd McKieran (a free) and O’Sullivan (a well-worked score from play) traded points. Scores from Lorcan Dolan (at the end of a laboured move) and the hard-working Whittaker put Westmeath a remarkable 14 points clear (0-17 to 0-3) on the half-hour mark.

An opportunist point from Oisín Kiernan preceded a major controversy in the 33rd minute. A scuffle between Jack Geoghegan and James Smith saw the Westmeath man pick up a second yellow (and therefore a red card) and his opponent a yellow, while Jamie Gonoud picked up a black card for getting involved. Smith seemed fortunate to escape with a yellow. This left Westmeath with 13 men for the remainder of the half and the early stages of the second. McKiernan doubled his tally from frees in the 34th minute. At the interval, the Lake County led by 0-17 to 0-5, but given the strength of the wind and the availability of two-point scores, it looked a deceptive scoreline. And so it proved.

On the change of ends, sandwiched between a point exchange between the respective number 10s, Gerard Smith and Danny McCartan, half-time sub Conor Madden spurned a glorious goal chance for the Breffni men. However, they gradually took control and more or less totally dominated possession from kick-outs taken from both ends of the pitch. The gap was down to just three points (0-18 to 0-15) with 45 minutes on the clock, two-pointers from Dara McVeety (open play) and McKiernan (a free) being followed by four points from Oisín Brady (play, a free, and a two-point free), and a point from sub Cian Madden.

A point apiece from Loughlin (a free) and Danny McCartan (a quality score), either side of a rare Westmeath catch via Ray Connellan, steadied home fans’ nerves, but the relief was temporary with the outstanding James Smith firing over a point before Gerard Smith made the most of a poor turnover from a Westmeath perspective by soloing almost half the length of the pitch before slotting the ball low to the net in the 58th minute. A black card soon followed for Cavan sub Killian Clarke, but a great two-pointer by Dara McVeety in the 62nd minute put the visitors ahead for the first time (1-18 to 0-20) since the third minute.

They always looked the likelier winners from that moment onwards and duly outscored their hosts by four points (Madden’s second, a McKiernan free, and a two-pointer from sub Darragh Lovett) to one (a routine Loughlin free) in the closing stages. Westmeath’s woes were compounded when they picked up their second red card of the afternoon when Gonoud got a yellow with five minutes remaining to go with his earlier black.

Scorers – Cavan: G McKiernan 0-5 (1 2ptf, 3f), G Smith 1-1, D McVeety (2 2pt), O Brady (1 2ptf, 1f) 0-4 each, J Smith 0-3, Cian Madden, D Lovett (2pt) 0-2 each, O Kiernan 0-1.

Westmeath: D McCartan (2 2ptf, 1f), L Loughlin (1 2ptf, 1 2pt, 1f) 0-6 each, K O’Sullivan, R Wallace (2pt) 0-2 each, B Cooney, M Whittaker, L Dolan, C Dillon, B Kelly 0-1 each.

Cavan: Gary O’Rourke; Niall Carolan, Brian O’Connell, Jason McLoughlin; Padraig Faulkner, Ciarán Brady, Luke Fortune; James Smith, Evan Crowe; Gerard Smith, Dara McVeety, Oisín Kiernan; Ryan O’Neill, Gearóid McKiernan, Oisin Brady. Subs: Cian Madden for O’Neill (h-t), Conor Madden for Fortune (h-t), Killian Clarke for Crowe (45), Darragh Lovett for Kiernan (56), Sean McEvoy for O Brady (69).

Westmeath: Conor McCormack; Jamie Gonoud, Charlie Drumm, Jack Geoghegan; Ronan Wallace, Conor Dillon, Matthew Whittaker; Sam McCartan, Ray Connellan; Danny McCartan, Brían Cooney, Kevin O’Sullivan; Lorcan Dolan, Luke Loughlin, Brandon Kelly. Subs: Kieran Martin for Cooney (h-t), Enda Gaffney for Kelly (42), Daniel Scahill for Dolan (53), Robbie Forde for Martin (62), Stephen Smith for Whittaker (67).

Ref: Derek O’Mahoney (Tipperary).