Saffrons push on with plenty to spare

WESTMEATH began in whirlwind fashion in Saturday’s All-Ireland SFC qualifier at Casement Park, but the storm died down as quickly as it began as Antrim pushed on to the next round.

In the opening two minutes, John Heslin snatched a point and James Dolan fired a cracking goal. But that was the end of the Midlanders’ scoring for 29 minutes, during which the Saffrons rifled over eight points.

Despite Westmeath’s packed defence, Gerard O’Boyle, Conor Murray, Brendan Herron, the excellent James Loughrey and Kevin Niblock notched up points from play while Tomás McCann tapped over free-kicks.