Kildare win the day as Westmeath retain Division 2 status
Westmeath are safe in Division 2 of the Allianz NFL despite a 0-16 to 0-11 defeat at the hands of Kildare in Newbridge yesterday.
Jack Cooney’s troops – with one eye on their forthcoming Leinster SFC clash against Dublin (November 7) – never really threatened the hosts, whose victory guaranteed their own status in Division 2 for 2021.
A week earlier, Westmeath coasted to success against Laois in a result which, save a bizarre combination of results this weekend, had all but cemented the Lake County’s status in the second tier of the league.
The sides were level at the first half water break after John Heslin (a free) and Jack Smith cancelled out an early brace from Kildare’s Jimmy Hyland and Aaron Masterson.
Westmeath then took the lead through Ronan O’Toole, but four consecutive points from Jack O’Connor’s men gave Kildare a 0-6 to 0-3 lead.
St Loman’s pair Heslin and O’Toole had further scores but the Lilywhites maintained their three-point advantage (0-8 to 0-5) at the break.
The early exchanges of the second half saw Luke Loughlin and Ger Egan get off the mark for the Lake County, but by the 53rd minute the hosts led 0-12 to 0-7.
Subsequent scores from Heslin (a difficult free) and Egan saw Westmeath bring the deficit back to two points, and the stage was set for an interesting final 10 minutes.
However, that was as good as it got for the visitors, and during that final period, Kildare outscored Westmeath 0-4 to 0-1 to seal the win.
Kildare: Mark Donnellan; Eoin Doyle, Mick O’Grady (0-2), Mark Dempsey; Shea Ryan, Con Kavanagh, Kevin Flynn; Kevin Feely (0-1m), Aaron Masterson (0-1); Fergal Conway, Paddy Brophy, David Hyland; Ben McCormack (0-1), Darragh Kirwan (0-2, 1m), Jimmy Hyland (0-5, 2f). Subs used: Darragh Malone for E Doyle (16), Paul Cribbin (0-1) for F Conway (50), Neil Flynn (0-3f) for B McCormack (50), Liam Power for K Flynn (51), Luke Flynn for P Brophy (65).
Westmeath: Jason Daly; Jack Smith (0-1), Ronan Wallace, Boidu Sayeh; Jamie Gonoud, Kevin Maguire, James Dolan; Ray Connellan, Sam Duncan (0-1); Luke Loughlin (0-1), Ronan O’Toole (0-2), Paddy Holloway; Ger Egan (0-2), John Heslin (0-4, 2f), Kieran Martin. Subs used: Killian Daly for Holloway (32), Brandon Kelly for K Daly (65), Lorcan Dolan for Egan (70 + 1), Alex Gardiner for O’Toole (70 + 1).
Ref: Ciaran Branagan (Down).