Heslin earns draw for champions and denies Athlone

Athlone 0-16, St Loman's, Mullingar 0-16

By Gerry Buckley

Despite having to play almost the entire second moiety a man down, holders St Loman’s, Mullingar still showed their big match experience to eke out a draw against Athlone in the first game of last Saturday evening’s Westmeath SFC double-header at TEG Cusack Park.

Wearing a changed strip of all-black with a blue trim, an understrength outfit from the Delvin Road seldom came close to displaying their best form, and it needed eight late and unanswered points (including three two-pointers) to rescue a share of the spoils.

In truth, Eoin Jordan’s troops will be disappointed not to have won this contest and will hope that the point unnecessarily dropped will not come back to haunt them come the business end of the championship.

The men in their usual sky blue and white-hooped jerseys had the aid of a useful wind blowing towards the scoreboard end of Westmeath GAA headquarters in the first half, and they raced into a six-point lead by the 13th minute. Their tally consisted of three two-pointers – an Eamon Martin score from play after 40 seconds, a Shane Allen free some two minutes later (after some confusion as to whether they were going to be awarded a ‘45’), and a fine score from play by Kian Mitchell.

A foul on the lively Shane Dempsey on the quarter-hour mark enabled John Heslin to open his account from the resultant 20-metre free. Two minutes later, the hard-working Allen was denied a goal by Jason Daly at the expense of a ‘45’ which Kieran Colclough converted in style.

Paddy Dowdall’s charges almost came right back into contention in the 19th minute when a probing delivery by Heslin was slapped goalward by Eoghan O’Keeffe, but there was nobody on hand to get a potential goal-scoring touch. Michael Byrne then came forward from defence to kick a fabulous two-pointer from a tight angle.

When Allen slotted over a two-point free in the 25th minute, the gap was double-digits (0-11 to 0-1).

The respective number 15s, Stephen O’Connor and Dempsey traded wides before a minimum of three minutes’ added-time was signalled. Heslin increased his tally to three points in injury-time, via a routine free and what proved to be his only scoring contribution from open play on the stroke of half-time, but his team still had it all to do when trailing by 0-11 to 0-3 at the interval.

Dempsey, who had gone close on a few occasions in the first half, belatedly got on the scoresheet in the 33rd minute, after great approach play by Kevin Regan.

However, the Flanagan Cup holders suffered a big blow just two minutes later when Peter Foy was red-carded after the referee consulted one of his linesmen as Allen lay on the ground. The game threatened to become niggly at this juncture, but common sense prevailed.

A one-point free by O’Connor was more than wiped out by a two-point free from Heslin. Byrne and Jack Geoghegan soon exchanged one-pointers. A monster lineball from Heslin was cleared before Mitchell pointed, after a great run by Ray Connellan. This left the Shannonsiders ahead by 0-14 to 0-7 at the end of the third quarter, and in pole position to pull off an unexpected win.

After O’Connor stretched their lead in fine style, a point exchange between Heslin (a routine free, shortly after he had been narrowly wide from a two-point free with his left foot) and his former Lake County colleague Connellan saw the scoreboard reading after 51 minutes, Athlone 0-16 St Loman’s, Mullingar 0-8. However, the underdogs failed to add to their tally in the time remaining.

For their part, the dominant club in Westmeath senior club football for over a decade showed just why that has been the case by patiently whittling down the gap. Cillian Plunkett kicked a great two-pointer at the end of an eye-catching move before a minimum of five minutes’ injury-time was signalled. Dempsey kicked a great two-pointer in the second of these, and a weak kick-out after this score enabled sub Conan O’Hara to dissect the posts.

A two-pointer from a Heslin free left the deficit at the bare minimum and the same player equalised from another placed ball, just inside the 40-metre arc. A great catch and delivery by Connellan failed to generate a last-gasp winner for Athlone.

Man of the match: Shane Allen (Athlone). In a game where nobody stood out from start to finish, the Westmeath regular got through a lot of useful work in and around the midfield area.

Scorers – St Loman's: J Heslin 0-9 (2 2ptf, 4f), S Dempsey 0-3 (1 2pt), C Plunkett 0-2 (2pt), C O’Hara, J Geoghegan 0-1 each. Athlone: S Allen 0-4 (2 2ptf), K Mitchell (1 2pt), M Byrne (1 2pt) 0-3 each, E Martin (2pt), S O’Connor (1f) 0-2 each, K Colclough (‘45’), R Connellan 0-1 each.

St Loman’s, Mullingar: Jason Daly; Oisín Hogan, Darragh O’Keeffe, Eoghan O’Keeffe; Jack Geoghegan, Eoghan Hogan, Seanaí Bracken; Sean Flanagan, Cillian Plunkett; Peter Foy, Kevin Regan, Neil Duffy; Nathan Lally, John Heslin, Shane Dempsey. Subs used: Kelvin Reilly for Flanagan (inj., 26), Conor Regan for Duffy (38), Fionn O’Hara for E O’Keeffe (51), Conon O’Hara for K Regan (53), Neil Duffy for Lally (inj., 60+1).

Athlone: Darren Costello; Paddy Ryan, James Finlass, Michael Byrne; Kieran Colclough, Diarmuid Martin, Mark Egan; Ray Connellan, Shane Allen; Ryan O’Connor, Eamon Martin, Ben Killian; Cian Mitchell, Shane Reid, Stephen O’Connor. Subs used: Daniel Reid for R O’Connor (46), Matt Scally for Egan (56).

Ref: Alan Coyne (Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall).