Three Westmeath players start as Maynooth open Sigerson with away win

Maynooth University, featuring three Westmeath players on the starting team, opened their Sigerson Cup campaign with a narrow 1-22 to 1-20 win over St Mary’s at Davitt Park in Belfast on Wednesday.

The Kildare college led 1-11 to 1-7 at half-time and withstood a strong second-half comeback from the northerners before running out two-point winners.

Manager Aidan Minnock was impressed with the contributions of the Westmeath cohort, namely Dan Scahill (Shandonagh), Ciaran Daly (Coralstown-Kinnegad) and Sean Leech (Killucan).

“The Westmeath lads have been top class. All three played and made massive contributions,” said Minnock.

“Ciaran and Sean play on the same wing and work well together, they know each other’s games well.

“Dan is in with Westmeath and Sean Leech is inter-county standard, he can’t get enough work. A very honest player.”

Next up for Maynooth is UCD on Tuesday in Belfield (7.30pm).

“Happy to get the win, it’s always hard to get a win on the road so we’re very pleased with it,” said the manager, a Ballycumber clubman Minnock.

“We had a good league and then there was a bit of a gap in November and December so it was nice to push on. You’re going into it not sure where you are really after the gap – we had a few challenge matches and obviously training sessions but we didn’t have our full panel.

“So I’m relieved because you’d be on the back foot if you lost your first game.”