TJ Ryan happy as ‘professional’ 14-man Limerick survive

Limerick 1-24 Westmeath 0-18: Plenty of questions have been asked of Limerick since they crashed out of the Munster championship at the hands of 14-man Tipperary, but after another test of their mettle in Mullingar, Limerick are just one win from an All-Ireland quarter-final.

This time it was TJ Ryan’s side that had to cope with playing most of the game a man down, after Seanie O’Brien’s red card after 30 minutes. And like Tipp, when faced with adversity, they found their true character with Shane Dowling at the heart of the response.

Limerick looked truly rattled at that stage. They had led by five points early on playing into a gale, but the sending-off arrived at Westmeath’s period of real dominance.