Westmeath ladies suffer Breffni bashing from table toppers

Just a week after putting up a grittty performance against Wicklow, Westmeath's senior ladies were brought down to earth in Mullahoran on Sunday following a 21 point reversal to Cavan. Managing just two points over the course of the hour, Westmeath simply had no answer to the High flying Division 3 table toppers. The gulf in class was evident from early on and when they trotted off with a 1-9 to 0-1 advantage at the interval, the writing was on the wall.Adrian McGovern's team were made to look excellent against their disappointing opponents, with five-star performances coming from Aisling Doonan and Brid Boylan up front, Claire Murtagh at centre-field and the entire Cavan defence, which reduced the visitors to just a single point from play.After setting-up camp in the Westmeath half early on in the game, Cavan had only pulled themselves three points clear after ten minutes through a pair of singles from Clara Reilly and a left-footed Doonan free, having kicked eight balls wides in the first quarter; a tally which would double come the full-time whistle.Luckily for the Breffni women, a combination of poor handling from the Westmeath players and relentless defending from backs couldn't allow their opponents to capitalise down the other end, and when the hosts fired over two quick points from busy corner-forward Boylan and a rebounded goal from Roisin O'Keefe they were well on their way with not even 20 minutes gone in the game.In the chilly conditions, Cavan had began to warm to game and were led from the back by Ailish Cornyn, Claire Kearns and the faultless Donna English at full-back. Boylan's third point in as many minutes pushed Cavan nine points clear, before Sarah McManus was off target with Westmeath's first scoring chance in the 27th minute from a 30-metre free on the right side.McGovern's team put their foot on the throttle after that, with Catriona Smith, a 40 metre free from Doonan and Claire Murtagh's first point of the afternoon all but killing off their Leinster counterparts, as McManus grabbed Westmeath's first score of the game on the stroke of half-time, when Cavan went in at the break boasting an unassailable 1-9 to 0-1 lead.The one-way traffic continued after the restart, as McGovern could afford to experiment by bringing on all five substitutes - two of which would get themselves in on the by now common act of popping the ball over Westmeath's crossbar.Cavan opened the second-half with a tremendous score from Doonan, as the Templeport attacker drifted in from the right flank, slipped past two defenders and spilt the posts.Moments later her fellow club woman Sharon Cassidy came off the bench for a point, which Doonan backed up by sending over her own rebound after hitting the crossbar in effort of a goal.Dead and buriedWestmeath were truly dead and buried by this stage and a fine 40-metre effort from Murtagh underlined the fact, as Cavan moved 14 points clear. McManus cut the deficit temporarily by registering the Lake women's first point from play on 47 minutes, but that wasn't about to distract the home side.Murtagh again produced another accurate long-range effort - this time from a placed ball - before Pamela Crowe cut in from the wing to send over Cavan's 14th point with seven minutes to go.Cavan could have had their second goal five minutes afterwards when Simone Klusch was threaded through the centre, but an outstanding dive from Gemma Leahy in the Westmeath goal denied the substitute.With two minutes to go, Cavan landed three more scores to highlight just how much of a mis-match this contest was.Firstly, Cassidy finished off a slick move which was well worked across the field from the emphatic winners. Then O'Keefe pierced the Westmeath full-back line for her second goal, which was brilliantly tucked away past Leahy, before Klusch had the final say in the trouncing when she was sent through by her captain Pamela Crowe for a coolly taken point, which put the seal on Cavan's third successive win of the campaign.Cavan: Christine McCutcheon; Claire Kearns, Donna English, Ciara O'Reilly; Renee Murphy, Ailish Cornyn, Sheana Kiernan; Claire Murtagh (0-3, 1f), Rosie Crowe; Pamela Crowe (0-1), Roisin O'Keefe (2-0), Catriona Smith (0-1); Brid Boylan (0-2), Clara Reilly (0-2, 1f), Aisling Doonan (0-5, 2f). Subs: Sharon Cassidy (0-2), Grainne McGlade, Joanne Moore, Catriona Leddy, Simone Klusch (0-1).Westmeath: Gemma Leahy; Aoife Brady, Karen McDermott, Carol Finch; Aileen Martin, Johanna Maher, Fiona Claffey; Aoife O'Brien, Laura Walsh; Sarah McManus (0-2, 1f), Ruth Kearney, Lisa Rigney; Karen Hegarty, Lisa Bourke, Maud Annie Foley. Subs: Deirdre Robbins, Laura Halligan, Jill Draper, Jane McCormack.Ref: Ray McBrien (Leitrim)