Leinster Senior Football Championship

Wicklow 2-9 Westmeath 1-11

By Paul Keane at Laois Hire O’Moore Park

A frustrating season has suddenly sprung into life for Wicklow who are through to the quarter-finals of the Leinster SFC after a dramatic and landmark win.

A remarkable individual display from the ultra experienced Dean Healy, who hit the net along with John Paul Nolan, helped secure a full deserved Round One win for Oisin McConville’s men.

The result made a mockery of league standings with Westmeath, crowned Division Three champions just last weekend, falling to a chastening defeat against a side that was relegated to Division Four.

Westmeath were missing key men from their lineup including Ray Connellan, James Dolan and John Heslin – the latter two came on in the second-half – along with captain Kevin Maguire. Dessie Dolan’s side also had just a week to overcome their league final exertions as they took to the field for the fourth consecutive weekend.

But they still headed to Portlaoise as favourites and will have nightmares about how this one got away from them with Wicklow building up a big lead and battening down the hatches late on as Westmeath rallied.

Wicklow’s reward is a quarter-final clash with Kildare next weekend, while Westmeath won’t be back in action until mid-May.

The 2022 Tailteann Cup champions were hamstrung before a ball was kicked by the absence of so many key players from their lineup.

Dolan and ex-AFL player Connellan were both named to start initially, but were replaced by Jack Smith and Ronan Wallace before throw-in. Those were two strong replacements but they still missed Dolan’s dynamism at the back and Connellan’s aerial presence and power at midfield.

With Maguire failing to start again too and no Heslin in attack, it amounted to a mini-crisis for Westmeath who struggled from the off.

That’s not to take away from Wicklow’s performance which was both orderly and ferocious, boss McConville instructing his players to soak up everything Westmeath could throw at them and then hit them hard on the break.

One passage of play in the 30th minute summed up how the first-half played out; Stephen Smith won a ball in a promising position for Westmeath in the left corner-forward position, but was turned backwards by a robust challenge and Westmeath were quickly stripped of possession, resulting in a lightning counter-attack that ended in Patrick O’Keane drawing a save from the goalkeeper at the other end.

Westmeath’s ponderous approach played into Wicklow’s hands also. When Conor Dillon ran hard at the Wicklow defence in the 28th minute and burst through a channel of space, it felt like the first decent overlapping run in the game.

The Wicklow attack, meanwhile, were sharp and creative and the underdogs deserved every bit of their 1-5 to 0-1 half-time lead.

Wicklow had four points on the board, two of which came from Kevin Quinn, before Westmeath finally pointed through Luke Loughlin in the 22nd minute.

Wicklow’s impressive response to that score concession was to conjure a goal which put real daylight between the teams at 1-4 to 0-1.

Healy lofted a ball in from the left wing and somehow nobody in the Westmeath defence could prevent it from travelling all the way to the net. It was a gift but Wicklow were only too happy to take it given their spring difficulties.

Wicklow closed out the first-half with another score that was all about their commitment to attack, allied to Westmeath’s soft core, as Healy easily burst beyond two defenders and offloaded to Gavin Fogarty who fed Christopher O’Brien for his second point.

Dessie Dolan surely demanded greater urgency from his team during the interval chat and it was immediately evident in their play.

Wallace won a ball out on the right wing in the 43rd minute and could have taken the advanced mark but gambled by playing on and laid off to O’Toole for a point.

That was Westmeath’s second in a row and O’Toole then smashed a shot off the bar after an aggressive high press on Wicklow yielded a turnover. The rebound was gobbled up by Westmeath and Robbie Forde pointed, his team’s third score in a row.

They needed more scores than that though and Wicklow points from Nolan and Healy stabilised McConville’s men before Nolan grabbed their second goal.

Westmeath failed badly again to deal with another long ball, Healy’s Garryowen this time bouncing dangerously and Nolan first to it with a strong fist that hit the net.

Suddenly, Wicklow led by 2-7 to 0-5 and were in dreamland, thoughts already turning to a quarter-final next weekend.

They got there in the end but had to withstand a difficult final 20 minutes or so as Westmeath threw the kitchen sink at it.

Jonathan Lynam netted in the 55th minute for Westmeath and while Wicklow responded with points from O’Brien and the terrific Healy, Westmeath then reeled off the game’s last five points.

Time ultimately ran out for the Lake County who finished with an extra man following the black carding of Wicklow’s Tom Moran in the 67th minute.

Scorers for Wicklow: John Paul Nolan 1-2 (1 45), Dean Healy 1-2, Christopher O’Brien 0-3, Kevin Quinn 0-2 (1f).

Scorers for Westmeath: Luke Loughlin 0-5 (3fs), Jonathan Lynam 1-0, John Heslin 0-2 (1f), Robbie Forde 0-2 (1f), Ronan O’Toole 0-1, Sam McCartan 0-1.

Wicklow: Shane Doyle; Tom Moran, Eoin Murtagh, Matt Nolan; Dean Healy, Patrick O’Keane, Cillian McDonald; Craig Maguire, Jack Kirwan; Jonathan Carlin, Darragh Fee, Gavin Fogarty; John Paul Nolan, Kevin Quinn, Christopher O’Brien.

Subs: Jacques McCall for Murtagh HT, Gearoid Murphy for O’Keane 46, Joe Prendergast for McDonald 59-61 blood, Predergast for Fogarty 66, Oisin McGraynor for McDonald 69, Brian Nesbitt for Maguire 73.

Westmeath: Jason Daly; Jack Smith, Charlie Drumm, Daniel Scahill; Ronan Wallace, David Lynch, Sam McCartan; Andy McCormack, Jonathan Lynam; Conor McCormack, Ronan O’Toole, Conor Dillon; Luke Loughlin, Robbie Forde, Stephen Smith.

Subs: Nigel Harte for Conor McCormack HT, John Heslin for Stephen Smith 44, James Dolan for Jack Smith 55, Matthew Whittaker for Dillon 55, Senan Baker for Forde 67.

Referee: Paddy Neilan (Roscommon).