No hassle for the 'Castle as Cunningham's men prevail

A fiercely committed Garrycastle squad - showing unfathomable depths of self-belief and determination even when reduced to 14 men - took the notable scalp of favourites St Brigid's to book a deserved place in the All-Ireland club SFC final.Last Saturday's semi-final victory at ice-cold, breezy and showery Pearse Park is the culmination of a truly remarkable run for a Shannonside club who only saw the light of day in 1981. Having taken their sixth Westmeath SF crown in 2011, they went on to break the provincial barrier for the first time and are now on the cusp of the greatest honour in club football - the Andy Merrigan Cup.Garrycastle's victory simultaneously gives Westmeath football a tremendous fillip. Even if certain aspects of the team's first-half performance on Saturday were not pretty (8 yellow cards were doled out by referee Joe McQuillan), they displayed raw courage to overcome the handicap of being a man short for most of the last quarter against a team of St Brigid's proven resilience.Pre-match punditry had installed the Roscommon and Connacht kingpins as money-on favourites but, aided by a significant wind blowing diagonally into the corner of the goal, Anthony Cunningham's men made a dream start, ticking all the right boxes to storm into a 3-point lead in as many minutes.More in this week's Westmeath Examiner.