GAA: Meath and Westmeath to meet again on Saturday

Meath 3-09, Westmeath 2-12

Meath live to fight another day after another thrilling quarter-final

match resulted in a draw at Croke Park.

Westmeath built up a seemingly unassailable lead but were guilty of

squandering it in the second half when they failed to score from play.

Westmeath dominated the opening 35 minutes with Dessie Dolan scoring the

first point of the game in the second minute.

Meath duly responded through Ollie Murphy.

Joe Fallon and Ger Heavin added further scores for Westmeath but it was

Paul Conway's eighth minute goal that shook the Leinster champions.

Kelly kicked a point from the resulting kick-out for Meath but a Dessie

Dolan point and an Ennis goal gave Westmeath an eight point lead with 16

minutes on the clock.

Meath grabbed a lifeline in the 23rd minute when Trevor Giles kicked a

free straight into the path of Ollie Murphy who booted into the Westmeath

net.

Meath cut their rivals' lead to four points but an opportunist Dessie

Dolan goal with the last kick of the opening 35 left a half-time score of

3-07 to 1-06.

Meath began the second half with three unanswered points and there were

10 minutes on the clock before Westmeath notched a score through a Joe

Fallon free.

Fallon pointed another, but Meath battled back with three more scores to

leave a goal in it with six minutes to go.

In the last minute of normal time Ollie Murphy stepped up to score his

second goal of the game to level the scores and keep the Leinster

champions in the All-Ireland series.

The near-neighbours will meet next Saturday and the victors will face the

winners of the Kerry/Dublin replay in the semi-finals.