Westmeath 1-12
Kildare 1-11
WESTMEATH SURVIVED A late scare but were deserving winners as they look forward to a second consecutive Leinster final appearance under Tom Cribbin.
Cribbin would have been concerned early in the second half as his native county pulled six points clear.
It looked like curtains in such a defensive game when Tommy Moolick goaled in the 39th minute after great work from Neil Flynn.
Eoghan O’Flaherty pointed brilliantly three minutes later and it was looking good for Cian O’Neill’s charges. But they didn’t score for another 28 minutes, while Westmeath bagged 1-6 in that period.
The excellent Paul Sharry fired over a classy score in the next phase of play however and a poor kick-out from Mark Donnellan led to a point from Ray Connellan, just back from an AFL trial.
The momentum shift was noticeable, even at that juncture as Connellan reduced the margin to a goal and that was wiped out by James Dolan in the 48th minute, after good work from John Heslin and Callum McCormack, who had just entered the fray.
Heslin (free), Kieran Martin and McCormack raised white flags and there was only one team in it.
They looked to hold on, but almost didn’t. Cathal McNally saw his goal disallowed as referee Derek O’Mahoney adjudged Moolick to have committed an offence when challenging Darren Quinn.
The Lilywhites answered back with a couple of Flynn frees, after he had missed two difficult opportunities and struck the upright prior to that, but it was Westmeath’s day.
Scorers
Westmeath: J Heslin 0-4(fs); P Sharry 0-3(1 45); J Dolan 1-0; R Connellan, K Martin 0-2 each; C McCormack 0-1.Kildare: N Flynn 0-4(fs); T Moolick 1-0; E Bolton 0-2; F Conway, J Byrne, A Tyrrell, E O’Flaherty, N Kelly 0-1 each.
Westmeath
1 Darren Quinn
2 Jamie Gonoud
4 Kevin Maguire
5 Killian Daly
6 Alan Stone
3 Francis Boyle
7 James Dolan
8 Ger Egan
9 Denis Corroon
10 David Lynch
11 Paul Sharry
12 Ray Connellan
13 Kieran Martin
14 John Heslin
15 John Connellan
Subs
19 John Egan for Martin blood (8-16)
17 Callum McCormack for Stone (47)
19 John Egan for John Connellan (57)
20 Ronan Foley for Ray Connellan (63)
24 Rob Gorman for Maguire BC (70+4)
Kildare
1 Mark Donnellan
2 Peter Kelly
3 David Hyland
4 Ollie Lyons
5 Johnny Byrne
6 Eoin Doyle
7 Cian O’Donoghue
8 Tommy Moolick
9 Fergal Conway
19 Emmet Bolton
11 Morgan O’Flaherty
12 Eoghan O’Flaherty
10 Adam Tyrrell
14 Niall Kelly
15 Neil Flynn
Subs
13 Cathal McNally for Tyrrell (45)
21 Kevin Murnaghan for Bolton (50)
24 Chris Healy for Kelly BC (55)
25 Ciarán Fitzpatrick for O’Donoghue (57)
20 Eamonn Callaghan for Eoghan O’Flaherty (60)
18 Ryan Houlihan for Byrne (67)
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