Hughes fires Westmeath to first win in Manning Cup

Fr Manning Cup (Under-16 Football) Westmeath 2-10 Sligo 0-9 A brace of goals from substitute Alan Hughes proved crucial as a gutsy Westmeath U16 football side won its first game in this year's Fr Manning Cup at St. Loman's Lakepoint Park, defeating Sligo in wintry conditions by a flattering seven-point margin. The early exchanges were ragged as both sides missed gilt-edged goal chances. Sligo led by two points after ten minutes, via their impressive centre half forward, Matthew Cullen (play) and reliable freetaker, Dylan Kilgallon (free). A delightful score from Liam Cassidy, given the tricky underfoot conditions, opened Westmeath's account in the 12th minute. Further Sligo points ensued from Matthew Cullen and Dylan Kilgallon (a free), sandwiched between which Boidu Sayeh produced a great block on Luke Nicholson. Midfielders Robbie Curley and Matthew Cosgrove then traded points from frees. Darren Giles scored what proved to be the last score of the first half in the 23rd minute from a free, with the home team wasting a number of good chances - both from frees and open play - in the time remaining. At the break, the scoreboard read: Sligo 0-5 Westmeath 0-3. Six minutes into the second half, Westmeath edged ahead when substitute Alan Hughes found the net in style, the ball having fallen nicely for him in the large parallelogram. Four minutes later, Hughes doubled his tally, this time from the penalty spot after he had been fouled having taken a pass from Darren Giles. To their credit, the lads in all-black responded well to his double whammy, firing over four unanswered points by the 48th minute, via Dylan Kilgallon (two - both great frees), substitute Stephen Kearns and Matthew Cullen (a well-worked score), to tie up the scoring. However, the young Markievicz County men failed to score again while a revitalised Westmeath added seven unanswered points in the final quarter. The scores came from the hard-working Daniel Loughrey (two), Darren Giles (three - one free and a brace of outstanding scores from play), Athlone's Stephen Ward and Alan Hughes (who did well to dispossess his marker prior to dissecting the posts). Scorers - Westmeath: A Hughes 2-1 (1-0pen), D Giles 0-4 (2f), D Loughrey 0-2, L Cassidy, R Curley (f) and S Ward 0-1 each. Sligo: D Kilgallon 0-4 (4f), M Cullen 0-3, M Cosgrove (f) and S Kearns 0-1 each. Westmeath: Darren Cassidy; Gavin Glennon, Matthew Darling, Boidu Sayeh; Gavin Murray, Ciaran Shanley, Bobby Gonoud; Robbie Curley, Eric Kearney; Ruairí Cunningham, Stephen Ward, Daniel Loughrey; Kenny Dolan, Darren Giles, Liam Cassidy. Subs: Alan Hughes for Dolan (25), Sandi Ndebele for Gonoud (37), Daire Conway for Cunningham (50), Aaron Farrell for L. Cassidy (53). Sligo: Luke Walsh; Ryan O'Sullivan, Gavin McGowan, P.J. Farrell; Stephen Connolly, Jason Earls, Cian Gilmartin; Paul McNamara, Matthew Cosgrove; James Conlon, Matthew Cullen, Ciaran Stenson; Luke Nicholson, Darren Kilcawley. Subs: Stephen Kearns for Cosgrove (37), James Perry for Conlon (38), Darragh O'Brien for Stenson (43), Ger Brady for Kilcawley (44), Matthew Cosgrove for McNamara (51). Referee: Martin Carty (Offaly).