Westmeath recover from slow start to see off Wicklow at Mullingar

Westmeath recovered from being eight points down after 12 minutes to record a deserved win by five points against Wicklow in miserable conditions for football at TEG Cusack Park.

Wind-assisted Wicklow got off to the best possible start when Darragh Fitzgerald rolled the ball past Jason Daly for a tonic goal after 70 seconds.

Further points followed from Kevin Quinn, Dean Healy – many present thought the ball had gone wide – and Mark Kenny before Nigel Harte, who had just replaced injured skipper Kevin Maguire, opened the home team's account in the ninth minute.

When Eoin Darcy, a day after celebrating his 21st birthday, cut in along the endline before rifling the ball past Daly for Wicklow’s second goal in the 13th minute, the underdogs were 2-03 to 0-01 ahead. Malachy Stone was black-carded in the 22nd minute and fine points from play by John Heslin and Luke Loughlin helped Jack Cooney’s men to get the deficit down to three points (2-04 to 0-07).

Conditions deteriorated towards the end of the first half but Wicklow, managed by Colin Kelly (Cooney’s predecessor in the Lake County bainisteoir’s bib) scored excellent late points via the outstanding Quinn and Padraig O’Toole, either side of the dismissal of Rory Stokes on a second yellow card, to lead by 2-06 to 0-07 at the interval.

Westmeath had the half-time interval deficit whittled away within six minutes of the resumption of play, courtesy of a Heslin free and a fine point from play by the lively Ronan O’Toole, before the latter teed up Sam McCartan for a well-taken goal.

With an extra player and the aid of the wind, the home team looked sure to kick on, but it was a full ten minutes before impressive sub Lorcan Dolan edged them ahead for the first time.

All that Wicklow