Westmeath suffer only slip-up as pitch battles fail to materialise at HQ
With a dry day, the chances of repeating the previous weekend’s icecapades seemed slim, and so it proved. There didn’t seem to be much cause for concern, in fact, until the 13th minute, when Westmeath corner back Francis Boyle moved out to cover Tomas Quinn, who was gathering a rebound. Unfortunately for Boyle, his feet went from under him and Quinn stepped through to score the game’s only goal and sent the Dubs through to the All-Ireland semi-final.
Hard to say whether the underfoot conditions were to blame for the Dublin goal, though you could imagine some of the Cork and Waterford hurlers nodding in sympathy if they were watching on television: the Westmeath defender seemed to hit the deck suddenly enough to suggest he’d tried and failed to hold his ground.
The rest of the game didn’t prove the case one way or the other. In yesterday’s cliffhanger draw between Laois and Mayo, we had the odd slip and slide, but nothing concrete on which to indict the groundsman.
Brendan Quigley of Laois had one or two spins in the middle of the field doing a soft shoe shuffle, and Ronan McGarrity of Mayo was carried off when he went down on the Cusack Stand side of the pitch, but it was far from certain whether the much-maligned turf was to blame.
Clare-Kilkenny continued that theme: players lost their footing but it was hard to blame the pitch for that.
Let’s leave the final word to the Cats’ winning manager, Brian Cody: “Obviously it was much improved on last week. We and everyone else want to be out there on a perfect sod, and it was bad last week — I was watching it and it certainly was bad. The players can be definitive about it, but obviously it wasn’t that bad this week.
“Whatever was done, fair dues to the people who got it done. All of us want it to be in perfect shape, because this is a fabulous place to be.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
