Listless Limerick leave it late
Perhaps it was expecting a little too much that whatever stars aligned above Westmeath’s footballers seven days earlier at Croke Park might have retained their formation.
Still, with seven minutes to go in Mullingar and just four points separating the county’s hurlers from Limerick, the prospect of Westmeath staging another Lazarus-like recovery against vaunted opposition seemed plausible.
A hurling victory for the ages was ultimately beyond Westmeath as All-Ireland outsiders Limerick rattled off 1-5 without reply to give the scoreline an entirely flattering look.
Afterwards, TJ Ryan talked up the positives and spoke of the 10 goal chances his Limerick side carved out overall.
Few of them were gilt-edged though and they generally gave travelling fans in the 2,700 crowd little on which to hang any great hope for the rest of the summer.
Cian Lynch’s rising star status has been well heralded and he was surrounded by a clutch of autograph hunters again after yesterday’s game in Cusack Park.
But aside from an early missed goal opportunity, the Patrickswell talent hardly got a whiff of the action all afternoon and was called ashore after 44 minutes.
His tormentor was corner-back Shane Power who summed up all that was good about Westmeath’s lion-hearted display.
Power was the player ruled out of the Leinster championship defeat to Wexford after being struck on the faceguard by a sliotar during the warm-up. Initially, he feared for his eyesight.
Thankfully, there was no long-term damage and Power returned to action yesterday with a thrilling display, expending every last ounce of energy to frustrate Lynch before limping off with a calf injury.
Like Lynch, Shane Dowling was neutralised to a large degree. The All-Star sniped 1-3 but was called ashore with 13 minutes to go. A little like Liam Dunne put it after withdrawing several misfiring Wexford forwards during their equally testing afternoon at the same venue last month, the attacker wasn’t taken off for a rest.
At that stage of the game, Limerick led by just four points and were particularly grateful for the three goals they’d managed to take.
Westmeath had also sewn a seed of doubt into Limerick minds by recovering from seven points down earlier in the game to lead by two after half an hour.
At half-time a number of Westmeath players spoke passionately about history being at hand.
“Did we feel we could win it? Absolutely,” nodded Westmeath manager Michael Ryan. “All week we had a genuine believe we could win the game and that was reinforced by our first-half performance.”
Against that show of effrontery from the supposed underdogs, and given their own problems, Limerick must have harboured private fears about how the afternoon was progressing.
But they would ultimately find inspiration on their bench with substitutes contributing a combined 1-4 in the closing 12 minutes.
Declan Hannon replaced Dowling and scored three points while Thomas O’Brien also pointed. The game’s clinching score was Limerick’s fourth goal in the 69th minute from Adrian Breen.
It was a fine finish, a looping shot from right to left that had the effect of a giant pin pricking Westmeath’s balloon. The game was up.
Westmeath will cling to the positives of their season, like outscoring Wexford by 1-9 to 0-5 in the closing 20 minutes of that game and leading Limerick approaching half-time yesterday.
As for Limerick, it remains to be seen how much more they have to offer this summer. After side-stepping Clare, they have given two listless performances that hardly inspire heading into this morning’s draw for Round 2 of the qualifiers.
They could be without Tom Condon next weekend too when they battle for an All-Ireland quarter-final place. The corner-back shuffled off the field clutching his left shoulder with suspected AC joint damage.
But manager TJ Ryan was far from downbeat and pointed to the 4-15 tally. ‘A decent enough return’, he reasoned. Yet it could have been so much better and they went 20 minutes at one stage without a score.
In that period, they missed four goal chances and Westmeath, sensing opportunity, seized it with a terrific 1-5. The Lake County had one goal chance and Cormac Boyle nailed it, haring onto Niall O’Brien’s lay-off before blasting beyond Nickie Quaid.
Brendan Murtagh was immense too as Westmeath moved 1-7 to 2-2 ahead. Crucially, Limerick fought back with four points in a row to lead 2-6 to 1-7 at the break.
And within seconds of the restart Paul Browne capitalised on a stunning diagonal pass across goals from Mulcahy to fire Limerick’s third goal. They led by five and the local insurrection appeared to have been put down.
In a scrappy tie played on a slippery pitch in squally conditions, Westmeath battled on bravely though. Murtagh led them superbly and his fifth and sixth points of the game brought the gap down to four approaching the finale.
But victory was just beyond Westmeath as Limerick finished strong.
S Dowling (1-3, 1 free); K Downes (1-2); P Browne (1-1); A Breen (1-0); S Tobin, D Hannon (2 frees) (0-3 each); G Mulcahy (0-2); T O’Brien (0-1).
B Murtagh (0-6, 2 frees); C Boyle (1-2); D McNicholas (0-2); A Devine, E Corrigan (0-1 each).
D Morrissey for Condon (27), T O’Brien for Lynch (44), D Hannon for Tobin (52), A Breen for Dowling (57), D O’Grady for D Breen (65).
D Clinton for O’Brien (46), E Corrigan for McNicholas (50), K Murphy for Craig (59), N Mitchell for Power (63).
P O’Dwyer (Carlow).
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