Westmeath have advanced to the quarter-finals of the Tailteann Cup after a surprisingly facile win against an off-colour Laois side in Mullingar.
Nigel Harte put the home team ahead after a mere 15 seconds and Robbie Forde soon doubled this lead from a free. Ronan Coffey halved the deficit from a free, before Matthew Whittaker's powerful shot at the other end came back off the crossbar in the sixth minute, but his side still led by 0-04 to 0-03 with 13 minutes on the clock.
The outstanding Sam McCartan took centre stage at the midpoint of the first half when he scored a quickfire brace of quality two-pointers from play. Westmeath’s defending was very good at this juncture and Justin McNulty’s charges were struggling to get in for scores.
A rapid-fire brace of points from Brian Byrne and Kevin Swayne had the visitors within four points of their hosts, but Dermot McCabe’s men finished the first half very strongly.
A foul on the hard-working Shane Allen gave the hitherto-anonymous Luke Loughlin who, in fairness, had received a lot of pre-match attention from the Westmeath masseur, the opportunity to open his account by superbly converting the ensuing spot kick in the 33rd minute.
After a neat point from Stephen Smith the hooter sounded, but Westmeath sensed the opportunity to increase their advantage and duly did so when skipper Ronan Wallace finished off a great move by finding the net from point-blank range.
Wind-assisted Westmeath led by 2-12 to 0-07 at the interval.
Laois needed a good start upon the resumption, but they never really threatened to make it into a real contest.
Indeed, Westmeath had extended their advantage to 14 points (2-16 to 0-08) when Whittaker atoned for his earlier goal miss by scoring a wonderful individual three-pointer in the 42nd minute. The Lake County men went on to lead by 3-22 to 0-09 at the end of the third quarter.
The O’Moore County outfit had a brief purple patch when they scored five points without reply between the 58th and 64th minutes, including their only two-pointer of the match from a free taken by goalkeeper Killian Roche.
However, two more points from the best player on show, Sam McCartan, either side of a neat score by Kevin O’Sullivan preceded the full-time hooter.
Westmeath strangely opted to play on and when Loughlin’s goal attempt was blocked, Laois got a consolation goal from sub Jonah Kelly to round off a bitterly disappointing display from their perspective.
Westmeath: Conor McCormack; Jack Geoghegan, Sam Smyth, Jamie Gonoud; Joe Moran (0-01), Ronan Wallace (1-05, 1 2pt), Sam McCartan (0-08, 2 2pt); Brian Guerin, Shane Allen (0-01); Matthew Whittaker (1-01), Kevin O’Sullivan (0-02), Nigel Harte (0-01); Luke Loughlin (1-02, 1-0 pen, 2ptf), Stephen Smith (0-02, 0-01f), Robbie Forde (0-02, 0-01f).
Subs: Danny Scahill for Gonoud (44), Tadhg Baker for Guerin (46), Danny McCartan (0-01) for Smith (46), Eoghan McCabe for Whittaker (53), Shane Ormsby for Wallace (60).
Laois: Killian Roche (0-02, 2ptf); Ben Dempsey, Trevor Collins, Liam Knowles; Padraig Kirwan (0-02), Patrick O’Sullivan, Aaron McEvoy; Seamus Lacey, Damon Larkin (0-01); Mark Barry (0-03, 0-03f), Ronan Coffey (0-03, 0-02f), Conor Heffernan; Niall Corbet (0-01), Kevin Swayne (0-01), Brian Byrne (0-01).
Subs: Michael Doran for McEvoy (h-t), Jake Darcy for Knowles (43), Cathal Lee (0-01) for Corbet (45), Jonah Kelly (1-00) for Coffey (55), John Brennan for Heffernan (63).
Ref: Martin McNally (Monaghan).
