Laois comfortably dismiss weak Westmeath challenge

Joe McDonagh Cup: Laois 5-28, Westmeath 2-19

By Gerry Buckley

Despite registering a whopping 20 wides, a much more focused and physically stronger Laois side still proved far too strong for a very off-colour Westmeath outfit in cold but sunny conditions in TEG Cusack Park last Saturday afternoon, thereby removing any slim hopes of the Lake County reaching the Joe McDonagh Cup final.

This was an eminently forgettable display by the home team and manager Kevin O’Brien accepted afterwards that his troops had been totally outplayed from start to finish.

Thankfully, Westmeath’s win in London in the first round robin game seems certain to be sufficient to maintain tier two championship status for 2027 and with it an opportunity to further blood up and coming talent, as the squad is undoubtedly struggling for quality and depth in some areas. Indeed, further injuries picked up two days ago will make the challenge in Belfast all the more difficult next Saturday.

Westmeath had whatever advantage was accruing from a largely crossfield win in the first moiety. Laois had three wides registered in as many minutes – they ended up with a total of 11 by the interval. David Williams’ neat strike nudged the home team ahead during this period.

A wonderful individual goal followed in the fourth minute from Tomás Keyes, who was allowed to cut in unhindered from the right touchline, and this put Tommy Fitzgerald’s troops into a lead which, frankly, they never looked like relinquishing.

Peter Murphy halved the deficit, but three unanswered Laois points ensued from the sticks of Cillian Dunne, Aidan Corby and Ben Conroy. Point exchanges followed between the respective number 11s, David Williams (play) and Stephen Maher (a free), and Aaron Dunphy and Killian Doyle (a great score). In the 12th minute, Dunphy scored a terrific goal and he quickly followed up with a point.

David Williams converted a difficult free but again the visitors tagged on a hat-trick of points without reply, courtesy of Conroy (two) and Dunphy – all from play. The sides equally shared four points between the 18th and 22nd minutes – Shane Williams and Kevin Regan for the losers, and Dunphy and Maher (a ‘65’ after Sean Jackson had bravely kept out a Phelan goal attempt) for the O’Moore County men.

Padraig Delaney produced a goal-saving block from Eoin Keyes before Shane Williams doubled his tally. Eoin Keyes was fouled close to the Laois goalmouth in the 25th minute, but Eoin Reilly did very well to keep out David Williams’ resultant penalty stroke. To add insult to injury, Laois again scored three quickfire points at the other end via Maher (a free), Dunphy and Phelan.

Keyes was one of just a handful of Westmeath players causing problems for the opposition and he pointed in style in the 32nd minute. Laois were awarded a penalty some three minutes later after Ian Shanahan was fouled, and Maher made no mistake with a great conversion to the roof of the net.

In injury-time, Peter Murphy scored an opportunist goal for the men in maroon and white, and Shane Williams rounded off the scoring with his third point from play. However, Westmeath still trailed by 3-14 to 1-10 at the break.

The teams equally shared six points in the opening ten minutes of the second half. Ryan Mullaney, Maher (a free) and David Dooley scored for Laois, while Eoin Keyes (moments after Jackson had saved from Conroy with his foot), Regan and Eamonn Cunneen were on target for Westmeath. Conroy and Dunne soon added to their tallies, before Jack Gillen pointed for the losers.

Any slim hopes of a remarkable comeback by the home team evaporated in the 48th minute when the lively Conroy scored a terrific solo goal, batting the sliotar past Jackson after a long run goalward. They now led by 4-19 to 1-14 with 48 minutes on the clock.

In truth, the match had a training game feel to it during the final quarter with Westmeath failing to make any significant inroads into the huge deficit.

Despite a degree of profligacy, the men in blue and white continued to outscore a lethargic home team, doing so by nine points (Fiachra C Fennell, five from Dunphy – including four frees, Conroy, Ciaran McEvoy, and sub Jack Kelly) to four (an Eoin Keyes brace, and one each from a David Williams free and from play by Darragh McCormack), to lead by 4-28 to 1-18 at the end of the 70 minutes’ regulation time.

There was still time for the green flag to be raised at both ends in added-time. Both goals were scored by subs – Adam Bate with a cracking shot for the hosts, and Gearóid Lynch – his side’s 13th scorer - with an equally-good finish for Laois with time almost up. Sandwiched between these McCormack, who continued to try hard, doubled his points’ tally.

Scorers – Laois: A Dunphy 1-10 (0-4f), B Conroy 1-5, S Maher 1-4 (1-0pen, 3f, 1‘65’), T Keyes, G Lynch 1-0 each, C Dunne 0-2, FC Fennell, C McEvoy, R Mullaney, D Dooley, A Corby, M Phelan, J Kelly 0-1 each. Westmeath: P Murphy 1-1, E Keyes, D Williams (2f) 0-4 each, A Bate 1-0, S Williams 0-3, D McCormack, K Regan 0-2 each, K Doyle, J Gillen, E Cunneen 0-1 each.

Laois: Eoin Reilly; Ian Shanahan, Lee Cleere, Fiachra C Fennell; Ciaran McEvoy, Padraig Delaney, Ryan Mullaney; David Dooley, Aidan Corby; Martin Phelan, Stephen Maher, Aaron Dunphy; Ben Conroy, Cillian Dunne, Tomás Keyes. Subs: James Keyes for Maher (49), Jack Kelly for Corby (53), Gearóid Lynch for T Keyes (53), Mark Dowling for Dunne (57), Diarmuid Conway for Cleere (63).

Westmeath: Sean Jackson; Shane Williams, Johnny Bermingham, Naoise McKenna; Mark Cunningham, Jack Gillen, Rory Keyes; Andrew Shaw, Peter Murphy; Eamonn Cunneen, David Williams, Kevin Regan; Darragh McCormack, Eoin Keyes, Killian Doyle. Subs: Jack Kearney for Shaw (inj., 17), Darragh Egerton for Bermingham (inj., 38), Josh Coll for Doyle (49), Adam Bate for R Keyes (53), John Fry for Gillen (63), Matthew Cunningham for Regan (63).

Ref: Brian Keon (Galway).