Westmeath's John Heslin makes headlines once more this week

Allianz FL Division 2

Westmeath 1-18 

Laois 0-13 

Daragh Ó Conchúir, TEG Cusack Park

John Heslin gave an exhibition of kicking in the first half as Westmeath secured a deserved victory over Laois at TEG Cusack Park to keep their promotion hopes alive while their midland neighbours will now be focussing on second tier survival.

Heslin finished with eight points, split evenly between play and frees, the opening six of which came in the first half, when Westmeath had the benefit of a strong wind.

While the full-forward's scores from play were impressive, his free-taking was clinical and his kick from the 13m line wide on the left was glorious.

On the day that Zach Tuohy and Mark O’Connor sealed their place in an AFL Grand Final with Geelong, former St Kilda player Ray Connellan got in on the act with two fantastic scores of his own on the run.

Ronan O’Toole also provided a brace as Westmeath had far more imagination and invention, found space easier and finished better even allowing for the wind advantage.

Laois did not get off the mark until Mark Barry converted a 16th minute free and had to wait another quarter of an hour to notch up their first score from play via Gary Walsh.

It was 0-12 to 0-5 at the interval and the hosts never looked like being reeled in, keeping the exchanges tighter into the elements, leading by double scores, 0-16 to 0-8 before Jamie Gonoud palmed to the net in the 64th minute after good work by Lorcan Dolan, who also had two marked points to his name.

Gary Walsh shot five points from frees after this, but the game was long gone.

Scorers for Westmeath: J Heslin 0-8(4fs); R O’Toole 0-3; J Gonoud 1-0; R Connellan 0-2, L Dolan (2ms) 0-2 each; J Dolan, B Kelly, K Martin 0-1 each.

Scorers for Laois: G Walsh 0-6(5fs); M Barry 0-2, N Corbet 0-2(fs); D Whelan, E O’Carroll (f), D O’Reilly 0-1 each WESTMEATH: J Daly, J Smith, R Wallace, B Sayeh, J Gonoud, K Maguire, J Dolan, R Connellan, S Duncan, L Loughlin, R O’Toole, P Holloway, L Dolan, J Heslin, K Martin. 

Subs: B Kelly for L Dolan (67), D Lynch for Holloway (68), C McCormack for Loughlin (70+3), A McGivney for Martin.

LAOIS: N Corbet, T Collins, D Booth, R Pigott, A Farrell, S O’Flynn, E Buggie, K Lillis, J O’Loughlin, G Dillon, M Barry, B Byrne, D Whelan, E O’Carroll, G Walsh. 

Subs: R Munnelly for Barry (47), E Lowry for Byrne (52), D O’Reilly for Dillon (52), M Keogh for Whelan (60), B Daly for O’Carroll (61).

Referee: P Maguire (Longford)