Westmeath tamely exit as Kildare ease into last four

Kildare 5-15, Westmeath 0-12

Westmeath suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of a superior Kildare side, in the quarter-final of the Leinster Minor Football Championship at TEG Cusack Park on Tuesday evening.

Five first half goals put Kildare in complete control and it was embarrassingly one-sided. Kildare led by 5-8 to 0-4 at the break and the gap was 20 points early in the second half.

Corner-forward Cian Keogh netted in the second minute after Aidan Tobin’s pass, while wing-forward Jamie Flood finished powerfully in the fifth minute.

A neat pass by midfielder Charlie Doran set up superb corner-back Liam Mescall for Kildare’s third goal on 17 minutes while centre-back Jack Doran had the simple task of fisting home in the 20th minute. Flood got his second major in the 25th minute following Charlie Doran’s pass and in truth the game was well and truly over at this stage.

Westmeath will draw crumbs of comfort from their second half display in which they outscored the visitors by 0-8 to 0-7, but this was a poor display at the quarter-final stage of the competition. The dual player issue is an obvious factor, but the skill deficit was alarming and there was a poor effort in terms of workrate - Kildare runners seldom tracked or put under any pressure.

Aaron Connaire’s superb two-pointer in the second half was one of the highlights for the home side and they had a decent goal chance when Daragh Murray was through in the 51st minute, following Harry Hughes’ pass, but the finish was wayward. Connaire (going for a two-pointer) and Hughes saw efforts come off the upright at different stages. There were first half goal chances for corner-forwards Darragh Deegan and Stephen McWade both of which were sent wide.

The ease with which Kildare got scores to ease into such a commanding lead was the most disappointing aspect of this display from a Westmeath perspective. The visitors led by 3-4 to 0-3 at the end of the opening quarter, totally on top against the putative challenge from the home side. Charlie Doran was impressive at midfield and pulled most of the strings, while Liam Mescall ranged the pitch in outstanding fashion.

Scorers - Kildare: J Flood 2-0, C Kehoe 1-2, J Doran 1-1, L Mescall 1-1, E Lyons 0-3, P Ryan, J Reilly (1f) and A Tobin 0-2 each, F Lawlor, L Tennyson 0-1.

Westmeath: M Monaghan 0-4 (1 tpf; 1 ‘45’), A Connaire 0-2 (tp), S McWade 0-2 (2f), D Murray 0-2, D Kelly and C Cleary 0-1 each.

Kildare: Joe Crotty; Eoin Markey, Ryan Crawford, Liam Mescall; Fionn Lawlor, Jack Doran, Luke Shanahan; Charlie Doran, Páidí Ryan; Jamie Flood, Aidan Tobin, Eoghan Lyons; Jack Reilly, Greg Kelly, Cian Kehoe. Subs: Logan Tennyson for Flood (43), Gearóid Clare for Lawlor (50), Fiachra Martin for Ryan (54), Rory Cooke for Mescall (54), Callum Cowzer for Tobin (56).

Westmeath: Tom McCaul; Tom Weir, Cian McKeogh, Louie Dillon; Eoghan Daly, Tomás Brennan, Conor Cleary; Mark Monaghan, Billy Stenson; Darragh Murray, Dean Kelly, Alex Mullen Adamson; Stephen McWade, Aaron Connaire, Darragh Deegan. Subs: Finn Brennan for Stenson (20), Aaron Claffey for Daly (ht), Harry Hughes for Deegan (ht), Rhys Brady for Dillon (ht), Colm Clinton for McWade (50).

Ref: Eamonn O’Connor (Offaly).