Garrycastle relegated to intermediate football

Garrycastle, perennial kingpins of Westmeath football in recent decades, have been relegated to intermediate football.

The Athlone outfit lost a crunch Senior Football Championship Section B game this afternoon by the narrowest of margins (2-10 to 1-12).

The defeat, combined with victories for Athlone and Shandonagh over the weekend, condemns Garrycastle to relegation, with one round of championship games remaining.

County champions as recently as 2019, Garrycastle had been in trouble having lost their first three games. However, the wrong result in all three games involving themselves, Athlone and Shandonagh, this weekend has seen them door close on their senior status for the moment.

Since lifting the Flanagan Cup for the first time in 2001, Garrycastle have gone on to win seven more Westmeath senior football titles, also winning a Leinster crown in 2011.

The absence of some key players has taken its toll on Garrycastle in this year’s championship and the season has ended in relegation.

Garrycastle's defeat to Tang ensures that both Athlone and Shandonagh will remain in the senior championship next season. And indeed, so tight is the group, that both can now have legitimate hopes of sealing the second qualification spot behind Tang, who sealed their spot as group winners, with a game remaining, with their own victory over Garrycastle.