Dublin come good to see off gritty Westmeath challenge

Dublin had to work hard to dispose of a plucky Westmeath challenge in the third round robin tie of the Leinster senior hurling championship in slippery underfoot conditions in Mullingar.

Clearly stung by their hammering in Salthill eight days earlier, Westmeath hurled with spirit and no little skill in the first half.

The reliable Donal Burke nudged Dublin ahead from a sixth-minute free before Niall O'Brien belatedly equalised some two minutes later, his side having already missed five chances in the opening exchanges.

When the men in blue led by 0-05 to 0-02 after 15 minutes, they looked set to dominate but the side under the tutelage of Joe Fortune, a man very familiar with all aspects of Dublin hurling, rallied and they went toe-to-toe with the red-hot favourites.

Nothing epitomised their spirit more than a superb solo point from their highly-rated full back Tommy Doyle in the 26th minute. Behind him, Noel Conaty was called into action to good effect on a couple of occasions. For their part, Westmeath never threatened to raise a green flag in the first half, during which they shot seven wides to their opponents’ three.

The referee got an amount of stick from both sides for some of his throw ball decisions, and free-takers Killian Doyle (who converted five frees in addition to scoring once from play) and Burke (whose six first half points were evenly split between frees and open play) were kept busy.

It was 0-11 apiece at the end of normal time, with Danny Sutcliffe opening his account in injury-time to nudge the Metropolitans ahead by 0-12 to 0-11 at the interval. They were somewhat fortunate to be in front at that stage.

Half-time sub Fergal Whitley pointed just 17 seconds after the resumption of play.

Killian Doyle’s