Gillen stars as Joe Fortune’s reign gets off to winning start

Westmeath began their 2022 Kehoe Cup senior hurling campaign, and Joe Fortune’s tenure as manager, with a merited 1-21 to 0-16 win over Meath in Dunganny this afternoon.

After an impressive club season for Cullion, Jack Gillen hit 1-6 for the visitors in his first senior start for Westmeath, including a second half goal which really put daylight between the sides.

A well-drilled Lake County side led for most of the game, and held the advantage at the interval (0-11 to 0-10), with Gillen and Raharney’s Ciaran Doyle among the scores.

Minutes after the restart, Gillen drove the ball to the net and by the second half water break, the Maroons had a 1-16 to 0-11 lead.

Meath, managed by Raharney’s Nick Weir, were heavily reliant on centre forward Padraic O’Hanrahan for scores, with only one of the Ratoath man’s ten points coming from play.

But with Gillen, Doyle and Niall O’Brien all in form, Westmeath had that bit more firepower for their rivals.

Next weekend, Kildare await the Lake County in round two, in a home fixture for Joe Fortune’s men.

Scorers – Westmeath: J Gillen 1-6 (0-5f), C Doyle 0-5, N O’Brien 0-3, S Williams (1f) and K Regan (1f) 0-2 each, J Galvin, E Cunneen and O McCabe 0-1 each. Meath: P O’Hanrahan 0-10 (8f, 1s/l), M Burke and N Potterton 0-2 each, J Coyne and P Potterton 0-1 each.

Westmeath: Noel Conaty; Johnny Bermingham, Tommy Doyle, Darragh Egerton; Conor Kane, Aaron Craig, Jack Galvin; Eamonn Cunneen, Shane McGovern; Ciaran Doyle, Davy Gavin, Kevin Regan; Niall O’Brien, Jack Gillen, Eoin Keyes. Subs used: Joey Boyle for Gavin (39), Niall Mitchell for Keyes (39), Alan Cox for Egerton (47), Morgan Gavigan for Gillen (51), Conor Bracken for Conaty (51), Shane Williams for Regan (55), Tommy Gallagher for Craig (58), Peadar Scally for T Doyle (59), Owen McCabe for Kane (59), Jamie Mulkearns for C Doyle (59), Eoghan Ahearn for O’Brien (61).

Meath: Conor Ryan; Killian Swaine, Shane Brennan, Brendan McKeon; Sean Geraghty, Mickey Burke, Justin Coyne; Stephen Morris, Patrick Potteron; David Reilly, Padraic O’Hanrahan, Callum O’Sullivan; Nicholas Potterton, Jack Walsh, Adam Gannon. Subs used: Christopher Reilly for Walsh (h-t), Ciaran Lonergan for Swaine (47), Damien Healy for P Potterton (51), Cian Kelly for Coyne (57), Gary Fleming for Burke (58), James McNally for Morris (58), Kevin Keena for O’Sullivan (59), Adam O’Connor for Geraghty (inj., 60).

Ref: Adam Kinahan (Offaly).