Carlow among the goals once again in the McDonagh Cup
Conor Kehoe celebrates scoring Carlow's opening goal against Westmeath in TEG Cusack Park Photo: Pat Ahern
For the second week in a row, Carlow scored four goals and this was key to their Joe McDonagh second round victory in Mullingar on Saturday.
The visitors got off to a lightning start with Conor Kehoe sneaking in behind the Westmeath defence to fire to the net from close range. The home side shrugged off the concession and Killian Doyle scored two points from play with Marty Kavanagh raising a white flag for Carlow.
The Westmeath goal came on six minutes when a high ball fell in front of Doyle and he found the net. It was point for point for the next ten minutes before Westmeath edged clear with scores from Eamonn Cunneen, Doyle and Shane Williams. A Carlow free from Kavanagh reduced the home lead to three and then they struck for a second goal when Kavanagh took a return pass from Ciaran Whelan. Breaking clear, the centre forward gave Sean Jackson no chance in the Westmeath goal.
After that the tit-for-tat nature of the game continued with Fiachra Fitzpatrick ending the half with three Carlow points while David Williams also raised three white flags from placed balls for the home side. With the teams locked together at 1-13 to 2-10 it was all to play for after the interval.
Shane Williams opened the second half account for Westmeath but the Carlow reply was instantaneous as Donagh Murphy pointed. Just as Westmeath looked as if they were going to get on top, a Marty Kavanagh pass picked out Chris Nolan and the Carlow captain found the bottom left hand corner of the net.
It remained tight but just when it looked as if this game was going to go to the wire, Carlow found another three-pointer through James Doyle.
It was the visitor’s to lose now but in the final 14 minutes, it was the defence who ruled the roost and much of what Westmeath threw at Carlow was returned with interest.
Substitute, Evan Kealy’s, two late points ensured there would be no late drama to ensure Carlow have maximum points after two games.
M Kavanagh 1-8 (5fs 65), F Fitzpatrick 0-5, J Doyle 1-1, C Kehoe 1-1, C Nolan 1-0, D Murphy 0-2, E Kealy 0-2, J Nolan 0-1.
D Williams 0-7 (4fs 65), K Doyle 1-3, E Cunneen 0-3, S Williams 0-3, D McCormack 0-2, A Shaw, P Murphy, E Keyes, K Regan, J Kearney 0-1 each.
Brian Tracey; Paul Doyle, Dion Wall, Jack McCullagh; Fiach O’Toole, Kevin McDonald, Fiachra Fitzpatrick; Jon Nolan, Ciaran Whelan; Paddy Boland, Marty Kavanagh, James Doyle; Donagh Murphy, Conor Kehoe, Chris Nolan. Subs: Evan Kealy for Boland (47), Jake Nolan for Murphy (50), Conaill Fitzpatrick for O’Toole (65), John Michael Nolan for Kehoe (71).
Sean Jackson; Shane Williams, Conor Shaw, Naoise McKenna; Jack Gillen, Johnny Bermingham, Rory Keyes; Andrew Shaw, Peter Murphy; Eamonn Cunneen, David Williams, Kevin Regan; Darragh McCormack, Eoin Keyes, Killian Doyle. Subs: Mark Cunningham for A Shaw (51), Jack Kearney for Murphy (53), Darragh Egerton for Bermingham (59), Josh Coll for Regan (61), Adam Bate for Gillen (67).
Peter Owens (Down).
