Goals decisive as Westmeath U20 side lose out to Kildare

Kildare 3-14, Westmeath 1-14

By Gerry Buckley

Suffering a double-whammy of two goals conceded inside a minute at the start of the third quarter proved too much for Westmeath’s U20 hurlers in Manguard Park, Hawkfield last Sunday afternoon as they exited the race for Leinster ‘proper’ honours at the hands of Kildare.

After a wasteful first half, albeit playing against a stiff breeze, Jody Murray’s charges had whittled a nine-point interval deficit down to three when the Lilywhites raised two green flags in quick succession to all but kill off the visitors’ chances. Westmeath will now play in the tier two provincial championship.

The home side had the aid of the elements in the first moiety and they opened the scoring after 90 seconds via Charlie Carroll. A long-range free from Dylan Corrigan soon levelled the scoring. From the ensuing puck-out, Oisín O’Neill nudged Kildare into a lead they would never relinquish. A brace of wides at both ends preceded a quality point from Carroll. In the tenth minute, Tom Boran’s run goalward teed up Mark Kiernan for the game’s first goal, despite the scorer stumbling as he made contact with the sliotar.

Some erratic free-taking by Corrigan followed before Michael Owens and Darragh Smith traded points. Further point exchanges ensued between Tom Power (after a push on an opponent was ignored) and Ryan Williams, and Power (a very good free) and his opposite number Cormac McKeogh (a well-worked score), leaving Kildare ahead by 1-6 to 0-4 with 20 minutes on the clock.

The referee then travelled the length of the pitch when alerted by his umpires, but took no action as a result. The winners scored four unanswered points during the remainder of the first half, courtesy of two Power frees, either side of scores from play Boran and O’Neill. Westmeath almost raised a green flag on the half-hour mark when a McKeogh delivery was flicked goalward by Eoin Meehan, but his effort was narrowly wide. Kildare led by 1-10 to 0-4 at the interval.

Darragh Kenny and Kian Loughlin were both wide from long-range frees in the opening two minutes of the second half, but the losers eventually steadied the nerves of their small band of supporters present in the Kildare centre of excellence by rifling over five points in as many minutes to come right back into contention. The scores came from the sticks of Loughlin (two frees), Ryan Williams, Kenny, and Cody Ward.

Power scored Kildare’s first point of the half from a difficult free in the 44th minute, but a point apiece from Williams and McKeogh left Westmeath trailing by just a goal (1-11 to 0-11) at the end of the third quarter, seemingly well on course for victory with the wind behind them.

However, after Carroll spurned a goal chance by overplaying the ball, winning captain Tim Ryan showed the way with a fine team goal. Within a minute, Oran Byrne’s three-point attempt was blocked but Carroll was on hand to scoop the sliotar over the line, and Kildare now led by three clear goals with 12 minutes of normal time remaining.

To their credit, Westmeath refused to throw in the towel and they scored three unanswered by the 55th minute via a brace of Loughlin frees (sandwiched between which a goal attempt from a placed ball by the same player was saved) and Smith (open play).

Boran and Power responded with well-taken Kildare points. In the first minute of added-time – a minimum of two was signalled – a Loughlin lob from a free went all the way to the net. Power rounded off match scoring by converting a free, and a late Lake County green flag attempt after a goalmouth scramble merely amounted to an unconverted ‘65’.

Scorers – Kildare: T Power 0-7 (5f), C Carroll 1-2, M Kiernan, T Ryan 1-0 each, O O’Neill, T Boran 0-2 each, M Owens 0-1.

Westmeath: K Loughlin 1-4 (all frees), R Williams 0-3, D Smith, C McKeogh 0-2 each, D Corrigan (f), D Kenny, C Ward 0-1 each.

Kildare: Cormac Doolan; Darragh Devine, Paddy Connolly, Dylan Doherty; Oisín O’Neill, Cian Brody, Odhran Conaty; Michael Owens, Tim Ryan; Ciarán Dunne, Charlie Carroll, Oran Byrne; Mark Kiernan, Tom Power, Tom Boran. Subs used: Alex Bell for Kiernan (47), Cillian Harrington for O’Neill (55), Rian Curran for Carroll (55), Cillian Power for Dunne (58).

Westmeath: Cathal Óg Fagan; Conor Daly, Jack Murtagh, Aaron Flanagan; Darragh Smith, Sean Hayes, Darragh Kenny; Ben McNamee, Conor Leech; Dylan Corrigan, Kian Loughlin, Cody Ward; Ryan Williams, Cormac McKeogh, Eoin Meehan. Subs used: Neale Pierson for Meehan (38), Finn Higgins for Ward (50).

Ref: Kyle Waters (Offaly).