Ronan Wallace of Westmeath during the All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 3 match against Monaghan at St Tiernach’s Park, Clones. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile

A memorable journey ends against Monaghan

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Westmeath's remarkable journey came to an end in front of 21,673 supporters at sun-soaked Clones on June 21 as Monaghan proved a bridge too far.

The sides were level, 2-9 to 0-15, after a gripping first half in which Westmeath’s two goals were cancelled out by three two-point frees from Rory Beggan’s unerring right boot. Despite goals from Matthew Whittaker and Brandon Kelly, the Lake County bowed out.

Westmeath manager, Mark McHugh felt the relentless series of games at the highest level had taken its toll on his side.

"They have a lot of pace, (Stephen) O’Hanlon caused us a lot of bother. We tried three different men on him but we just couldn’t get a handle on him, the day it was and the way the game was, how open it was, it just allowed him to run down the middle," he observed.

“There is no doubt in my head we were beaten by the better team today, so it’s not what might have been. Monaghan deserved the victory.

“I think the energy and the heat and the six-day turnaround, everything just caught up in that third quarter,” he added.

“But credit to the Westmeath supporters and the Westmeath people, they have really backed us this year. We really appreciate that.

“They are out there thanking us but we should really be out there thanking them because we wouldn’t have won Leinster without them and we probably wouldn’t have beat Cavan without them. It has been a joy to be involved in this group over the past few months,” he added.

Scorers for Westmeath: B Kelly 1-3, M Whittaker 1-2, R Wallace 0-4 (tpt free; one '45') S Corcoran 0-3, J Heslin, R Forde 0-2 each, K O’Sullivan, S McCartan, T Baker 0-1 each.

WESTMEATH: James Mitchell; Adam Treanor, Charlie Drumm, Tadhg Baker; Ronan Wallace, Shane Allen, Matthew Whittaker; Brían Cooney, Shane Ormsby; Kevin O’Sullivan, Sam McCartan, Conor Dillon; John Heslin, Senan Baker, Brandon Kelly.

Subs: R Forde for Cooney (25), S Corcoran for S Baker (45), R Connellan for Heslin (53), J Duncan for O’Sullivan (55), D Scahill for Treanor (59).

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