Westmeath promoted despite heavy defeat by slicker Sligo

by Gerry Buckley

Sligo 1-14, Westmeath 0-11

The good news – and it is great news – after last Sunday’s final round robin games in the National Football League is that Westmeath will play in Division 2 next year, but the bad news is that they were well beaten on the day by Sligo and depended on a favour from Down to seal a deserved promotion.

Make no mistake about it, the ‘All-Blacks’ of Gaelic football were not at all flattered by their six-point winning margin in Markievicz Park, Tony McEntee’s charges completely outplaying their guests in the final quarter especially, in front of a good-sized and Lake County-dominated crowd.

For their part, the home supporters were left to rue missed opportunities in earlier games and they will again ply their trade in spring’s third tier in 2025, while Dessie Dolan’s men had enough credit in the bank to edge out an unlucky Clare side in the race for the second spot in that division this season.

Overall, however, on the evidence of their respective games in Newry and Sligo last Sunday, table-toppers Down will be firm favourites to lift the Division 3 trophy in Croke Park next Saturday, despite next weekend’s finalists having played out a very fair draw in TEG Cusack Park as recently as nine days ago.

Westmeath had the aid of a slight wind in the first half and they started the game well, courtesy of a brace of Luke Loughlin points – the first of them from a free – in the opening five minutes. The always-threatening Alan McLoughin halved the deficit in the tenth minute before Ronan O’Toole kicked his second narrow wide of the contest.

Robbie Forde, who never came close to replicating his heroics of a week earlier, was then wide from a 45-metre ‘mark’. O’Toole and McLoughlin soon traded points – it could have been a Sligo goal in the latter case – before O’Toole superbly teed up David Lynch to put the men in maroon and white 0-4 to 0-2 ahead with 19 minutes elapsed.

The home team were very wasteful at this juncture, but they got a lucky break when a ‘point’ from a 23rd-minute Loughlin free was eventually waved wide after the referee consulted the umpire who had initially raised his white flag. A quickfire brace from the boots of Lee Deignan and Niall Murphy levelled the contest by the 28th minute.

A point apiece from O’Toole (after great play by the hard-working Andy McCormack) and Loughlin (a free) put the visitors two clear. A point attempt by Canice Mulligan was so off-target that the ball went over the sideline, before a needlessly-conceded ‘45’ was kicked narrowly wide by Sligo ‘keeper Aidan Devaney, leaving Westmeath ahead by 0-6 to 0-4 at the interval.

Westmeath ‘owned’ the ball for the opening three minutes of the second half, but it was Sligo who were now the more economical and that man McLoughlin pointed neatly in the 39th minute. Other scores followed quickly from Murphy (a fisted effort), McLoughlin again, and Darragh Cummins.

A fisted point from Sam McCartan and a neat score from half-time sub John Heslin levelled the game, with McLoughlin (who might have goaled) and Heslin (a free) swapping points to leave the teams tied at 0-9 apiece with 53 minutes on the clock.

However, Sligo more or less completely dominated the final quarter during which they outscored Westmeath by 1-5 to 0-2. The goal was excellently put away by Sean Carrabine in the 66th minute, a minute after he had pointed when a three-pointer was also on the cards. He also converted a free (moved closer to the goal for dissent), with Murphy scoring the remaining three points, including the score of the afternoon in the 56th minute.

Late points from McCormack and Loughlin (acrobatically denied a goal by Devaney) wrapped up the losers’ total, with McCartan somewhat fortunate not to have ‘scored’ an own goal when he deflected the ball past his club and county colleague Jason Daly in the 63rd minute. Ironically, both sets of players had reason to be happy at the final whistle.

Scorers – Sligo: S Carrabine 1-2 (0-1f), A McLoughlin, N Murphy 0-5 each, L Deignan, D Cummins 0-1 each.

Westmeath: L Loughlin 0-4 (2f), J Heslin (1f), R O’Toole 0-2 each, S McCartan, D Lynch, A McCormack 0-1 each.

Sligo: Aidan Devaney; Paul McNamara, Eddie McGuinness, Evan Lyons; Peter Laffey, Darragh Cummins, Nathan Mullen; Canice Mulligan, Paul Kilcoyne; Alan McLoughlin, Lee Deignan, Cian Lally; Eoghan Smith, Sean Carrabine, Niall Murphy. Subs used: David Quinn for Smith (58), Donal Conlon for Deignan (58), Mikey Gordon for McNamara (64), Keelan Cawley for Kilcoyne (67), Mark Walsh for Laffey (70+3).

Westmeath: Jason Daly; Daniel Scahill, Kevin Maguire, James Dolan; Sam McCartan, David Lynch, Nigel Harte; Ray Connellan, Andy McCormack; Jonathan Lynam, Ronan O’Toole, Conor Dillon; Luke Loughlin, Kieran Martin, Robbie Forde. Subs used: John Heslin for Martin (h-t), Jamie Gonoud for Harte (50), Stephen Smith for Forde (50), Matthew Whittaker for Lynam (52), Eoin Mulvihill for Scahill (67).

Ref: Jonathan Hayes (Limerick)