Westmeath 0-19 Galway 3-27
Galway have advanced to a Leinster semi-final meeting with Offaly after encountering little resistance in Mullingar.
Galway never let Westmeath get into the game and having led by 0-17 to 0-05 at the break, they pulled away in the second-half after the home side went down to 14 men when corner back Shane Power was sent off.
Jason Flynn got the first of the Galway goals and Joseph Cooney and Conor Whelan also found the net for the Tribesmen.
Westmeath, boosted by their U-21s defeating Kilkenny, needed a good start to have any chance of a first ever championship win over Galway.
But it was the Tribesmen, with Micheal Donoghue in charge for his first championship game, who raced out of the blocks and four points in the opening five minutes sent them on their way.
Their lead would have been greater had Westmeath goalkeeper Paddy Maloney not pulled off a string of excellent saves.
Joe Canning, constantly switching positions, was very sharp for Galway and had 0-08 on the board by the time he went off five minutes after the restart following the incident in which Power was given a red card for an off the ball incident.
Five Galway forwards and both midfielders hit the target in the opening half as they built up a 0-17 to 0-5 interval lead.
Westmeath needed a big start to the second-half but the dismissal of Power ended any notion of that.
Niall O’Brien, who finished with 0-12, did most to keep Westmeath in touch, while Brendan Murtagh and Niall Mitchell hit a couple of points each after coming on.
But Galway were capable of adding scores at any stage, with Jason Flynn getting their first goal after 44 minutes.
Joseph Cooney became the last of the Galway forwards to score when he raced through to drill home an excellent goal four minutes later.
Westmeath seemed destined for a huge defeat when they trailed by 2-18 to 0-08 but they never gave up.
However, Galway continued to be sharp in picking off scores with Conor Cooney marking his return from injury by landing four from play after coming on.
Eleven Galway players found the target on a day when all but six points of their haul came from play.
Conor Whelan, a teenage debutant last in the All-Ireland quarter-final win over Cork, was impressive throughout and he got Galway’s third goal in the closing stages of a match disrupted by some heavy downpours and the start of which was delayed to allow the crowd of 5,263 get into the ground.
Westmeath will now head for the qualifiers and will look to rediscover the form they showed in the round robin series.
But Galway are on the march again and Offaly are now in their sights the weekend after next with a place in the Leinster final up for grabs.
Westmeath: P Maloney; S Power, T Doyle, T Gallagher; A Craig, A Clarke, G Greville; C Boyle, R Greville; L Varley, E Price, N O'Brien (0-12, 0-08 frees); A Devine (0-02), D McNicholas, D Egerton.
Subs: B Murtagh (0-02, 0-01 free) for Egerton (36m), N Mitchell (0-02) for Boyle (51m), A McGrath for Varley (55m), K Doyle (0-01) for Price (58m), D Clinton for McNicholas (59m).
Galway: C Callanan; J Coen, J Hanbury, F Moore; P Mannion, Daithi Burke, A Harte; David Burke (0-03), D Glennon (0-03); S Maloney (0-01), J Canning (0-08, 0-03 frees, 0-01 sideline), J Cooney (1-00); C Whelan (1-01), C Mannion (0-02), J Flynn (1-03, 0-01 free).
Subs: C Cooney (0-04) for Canning (40m), K Hussey for Moore (52m), A Tuohy for P Mannion (52m), N Burke (0-01) for Flynn (56m), P Brehony (0-01) for Coen (63m).
Referee: Diarmuid Kirwan (Cork)
