Heartbreak for Westmeath U21 hurlers as Dubs edge it

Dublin 2-8 Westmeath 0-13

By Kieran Galvin

Westmeath came within a whisker of reaching the Leinster U21 hurling final for the first time ever at Cusack Park last night (Wednesday).

Brian Hanley’s charges were edged out by Dublin by the minimum margin (2-8 to 0-13) in their semi-final clash on a damp night in Mullingar. Yet that doesn’t tell the whole story by any means.

Westmeath attacker Niall O’Brien had a penalty saved with about four minutes left at a stage when the scores were level.

A number of other good chances were missed by Westmeath – particularly in the second half – and afterwards, there was a palpable sense among supporters that this was one that got away.

The sides were level at half-time (0-9 to 1-6), the Dublin goal coming from wing-forward Colm Cronin. And when impressive substitute Cian Boland struck for Dublin’s second goal in the third quarter, the visitors looked poised to kick on for victory.

However, with Niall O’Brien’s freetaking to the fore, the pre-match underdogs kept plugging away and the sides were level (0-13 to 2-7) with seven minutes remaining.

In a tense finish, O’Brien was fouled inside the square and referee Kevin Brady awarded a penalty. It was a glorious chance for Westmeath. However, O’Brien’s shot was saved by Dublin netminder Conor Dooley. The Castletown-Geoghegan player scored 0-8 on the night but just didn’t get sufficient power on his penalty strike to find the net.

And it was Boland who grabbed what proved the winner for Dublin shortly afterwards. Westmeath just couldn’t notch an equaliser in the time remaining to force extra-time.

Tommy Doyle, Liam Varley, Gary Greville and Tommy Gallagher had fine games in the Westmeath defence. But despite the best efforts of the impressive Robbie Greville, Aonghus Clarke and Niall O’Brien in attack, they just couldn’t get enough scores to claim a famous win.

Scorers – Westmeath: N O’Brien 0-8 (6f, 0-1 ’65); R Greville and A Clarke 0-2 each; D Fennell 0-1. Dublin: C Boland 1-1; P Winters 0-4 (3f); C Cronin 1-0; C Conway 0-2; A Clabby 0-1.

Dublin: Conor Dooley; Matthew McCaffrey, Cian O’Callaghan, Sean McClelland; Eoghan O’Donnell, Robert Murphy, Chris Crummy; Donal Gormley, Conor Robinson; Paul Winters, Kevin O’Flynn, Colm Cronin; Caolan Conway, Aodhan Clabby, Oisin O’Rorke. Subs used: Cian Boland, Andrew Jameson Murphy, Fiontan McGibb, Tom Devlin.

Westmeath: Kieran Glennon; Paul Fennell, Tommy Doyle, Liam Varley; Gary Greville, Tommy Gallagher, Mick Heeney; David Fennell. David Lynch; Robbie Greville, Aonghus Clarke, Joey Boyle; Niall O’Brien, Cathal Scally, David Higgins. Subs used: Neal Kirby.

Referee: Kevin Brady (Louth).

*See full report in next week’s paper.