Cavan reel in Westmeath to win incident-packed battle

Cavan recovered from a 12-point deficit at half-time to edge out Westmeath 1-22 to 0-21 in a pulsating and incident-packed Division 2 game played on a heavy pitch in Mullingar.

Indeed, the match had been in doubt up to 12 noon. Westmeath, managed by former Cavan star Dermot McCabe, had the aid of a strong wind in the first half, but it was their Ulster opponents who opened the scoring via James Smith after 80 seconds.

The same player scored his side's second point all of 16 minutes later, but between the two scores Westmeath went on a scoring spree registering 0-12 in the process. Eight of these came via four two-pointers – two of them from Danny McCartan frees (with Cavan paying for some indiscipline) and the other two from Luke Loughlin (a free and open play). This left the scoreboard at the end of the opening quarter reading, Westmeath 0-12 Cavan 0-2.

Team captain Ronan Wallace stretched the home team’s lead with another two-pointer from play in the 20th minute, and they were well in control when leading by 0-17 to 0-04 with 32 minutes on the clock.

However, an incident in the 33rd minute between Jack Geoghegan and James Smith saw the Westmeath man pick up a second yellow (and red) and his opponent a first yellow, while Jamie Gonoud picked up a black card for getting involved. This left Westmeath with 13 men for the remainder of the half.

At the interval, the Lake County led by 0-17 to 0-05, but given the strength of the wind and the availability of two-point scores, it looked a deceptive scoreline.

On the change of ends, sandwiched between a point exchange between the respective number 10s, Gerard Smith and Danny McCartan, half-time sub Conor Madden spurned a glorious goal chance for the Breffni men.

However, they gradually