Odds favour Westmeath at Cusack Park

Westmeath 2-16 Mayo 2-10

A bumpy road finally took a turn for the better as Westmeath saved their Div 1A league status with in amazing fashion at Mullingar.

With Cork already doing them a huge favour on Saturday night by beating relegation rivals Fermanagh, Westmeath needed to win themselves and hope that Dublin beat Longford at Parnell Park.

In the end it all came true and a six point defeat of Mayo was fully deserved as Dublin romped past Longford at Parnell Park.

Westmeath led from the third minute of the game to the final whistle after Denis Glennon's early goal put them into a 1-1 to 0-1 lead.

In hindsight it was their 31st minute penalty conversion from Gary Dolan that closed out the game leaving Westmeath ahead 2-8 to 2-3.

By the break they held a 2-11 to 2-4 lead and it was only Mayo goals, from Alan Costello and Austin O'Malley, that gave the visitors a hope of getting something from the game.

In fairness Mayo didn't give up and Maughan was delighted with sub Pat Harte who hit a point straight after the restart followed by two O'Malley points to reduce the arrears to 0-4.

But the introduction of Joe Fallon tipped things back Westmeath's way and his 0-2 helped them to a scoring spree that saw them seal the deal well before the final whistle and save their league status.

Westmeath: G Connaughton; J Davitt, D O'Donoghue, J Keane; M Ennis, D Healy, D Heavin (0-1); R O'Connell, G Dolan (1-0; pen); D Glennon (1-1), P Conway (0-1), A Mangan (0-2); F Wilson (0-3; 2f), P Martin, D Dolan (0-6; 3f).

Subs.: J Fallon (0-2; 1f) for Martin 44, J Conroy for Wilson 66, D Kilmartin for O'Donoghue 68, T Stuart-Trainor for Davitt 74.

Mayo: J Healy; D Geraghty, P Kelly, G Ruane; F Costello, D Sweeney, J Nallen; F Kelly, D Heaney; M Moyles (0-1), BJ Padden (0-1), T Mortimer; A Moran, A O'Malley (1-3; 1f), A Costello (1-0).

Subs.: P Harte (0-3) for F Kelly 23; C Mortimer (0-1, 1f) for T Mortimer & D Munnelly (0-1; 45) for Padden both 57.

Referee: J White (Donegal).