Monaghan 3-13

Westmeath 0-16

On an overcast Saturday afternoon at St Mary’s Park Castleblaney last Saturday, the Westmeath under 20 footballers took on Monaghan in round two of the Philly McGuinness Cup.

Westmeath came into the game on the back of a six-point win over Louth the previous weekend, while Monaghan were aiming to bounce back from a disappointing five-point defeat by Armagh. Monaghan led by 1-8 to 0-8 at half-time before two second half goals paved the way for a decisive victory against Damien Gavin's charges, who will be disappointed with the outcome after they battled back to level matters for a brief period in the second half.

From the offset, Westmeath caused Monaghan serious problems. Having dominated possession in the opening stages, Shane Hanley chipped over to give Westmeath an early lead. For a while, Monaghan’s tactic of playing long direct passes into a dangerous full forward line faltered, mainly because of the positional play of the Westmeath sweeper. However, Stephen Mooney got Monaghan off the mark with a good score in the fourth minute.

The game was hotly contested in the middle third throughout, with both teams implementing a high press on the opposition kick outs. In the eighth minute, Westmeath capitalised on a Monaghan mistake to give Matthew Whittaker an easy score, before Shane Ormsby doubled Westmeath’s lead from the very next play. In the 10th minute, Monaghan clicked into gear. Points from Cian Conlon and Mark McPhilips levelled the game while Niall Meehan and Ryan Duffy helped tighten the Farney men up at the back. In the 12th minute, Mooney put Monaghan in front for the first time before Shane Hanley levelled the sides at four points apiece.

In the 16th minute, Monaghan centre back Conor Eccles was given space to drift down the side-line in a seemingly harmless position. As he crossed the halfway line, he threaded an inch perfect pass into his Cremartin clubmate Stephen Mooney whose “backdoor cut” gifted him a goal chance he duly disposed of. Westmeath replied immediately through Whittaker, but with momentum firmly behind them, Monaghan managed to extend their lead to five points after 28 minutes. Before half-time, Westmeath had a brief purple patch - Brian Cooney pulling one back before Danny McCartan got a great score off the outside of the right boot just before the break to make it 1-08 to 0-08.

Westmeath continued the comeback right after the break. After a '45' dropped short and pin-balled around the Monaghan square, the ball dropped to Coralstown/Kinnegad’s Podge Quinn, who popped it over to make it a two-point game. Westmeath again implemented the high press and Quinn got his second a minute to later.

From the kick-out, Matthew Whittaker got Westmeath’s third in-a-row to level the sides after 36 minutes. It took a good score from Stephen Mooney after 38 minutes to settle the hosts down, although it made the game quite cagey. A Cian Conlon free in the 42nd minute doubled the lead and when he scored from play from the exact same spot 30 seconds later, Monaghan showed their superiority up front. Westmeath’s efforts became more speculative while Monaghan were ruthless. In the 46th minute, wing back Bobby Walker, who was sensational in the second half, ran at the Westmeath defence and completely split it in two. This afforded Stephen Mooney way too much space inside and he was able to square it to Daniel McCaughey for an easy finish.

Monaghan’s second goal effectively killed the game with 15 minutes to play. Westmeath began to empty the bench. In the 51st minute, Monaghan’s Conor Eccles was shown a black card which reduced the hosts to 14 men for the final 10 minutes. Westmeath tried to launch a comeback but didn’t have the quality to break down the home side's 'blanket defence'. As Westmeath flooded men forward, Monaghan picked them off on the break. Brian Cooney and Toby Coneth hit good scores from distance.

However, Stephen Mooney capped off a fine performance with a goal in the fourth minute of injury-time: the Cremartin man finished with 2-05 and Monaghan finished with 3-16 to Westmeath’s 0-13.

It's not as if Westmeath had their bank of youth burgled in Monaghan: this was quite a good test and manager Damien Gavin will be happy with the game at this stage of the season. They will aim to bounce back from this defeat when they meet Armagh in Mullingar on Saturday week, while Monaghan play Louth next.

Westmeath: Senan O’Driscoll (The Downs); Tom Cloonan (Caulry), Sam Smyth (Killucan), Liam Daly (Coralstown/Kinnegad); Tadgh Baker (Caulry), Tom Kelleher (Tubberclair), Lorcan Mullen (The Downs); Sean Leech (Killucan), Shane Ormsby (Mullingar Shamrocks) (0-1); Peter Pierson (Tyrrellspass), Danny McCartan (St Loman's, Mullingar) (0-1), Podge Quinn (C/Kinnegad) (0-1); Brían Cooney (C/Kinnegad) (0-6, 5f), Shane Hanley (Tang) (0-2), Matthew Whittaker (Tubberclair) (0-4). Subs used: Dylan Murtagh (Milltown), Daragh Lowry (Moate All Whites), Toby Coneth (Moate) (0-1), Shane Corcoran (St Malachy's), Harry Stuart-Trainor (Caulry), Charlie Kennedy (Tubberclair), Chris Daly (Tyrrellspass), William Reynolds (Maryland).

Monaghan: Darragh Croarkin; Ryan Duffy, Niall Meehan, Dylan Byrne; Bobby Walker, Connor Eccles, Caolan O’Reilly; Sean Treanor, Mark McPhilips (0-1); James Slevin, Mike Hamill (0-2), Thomas Hughes; Cian Conlon (0-5, 4f), Daniel McCaughey (1-0), Stephen Mooney (2-5, 1f). Subs used: Niall Rice, Louis Kelly.

Referee: Pat Clarke.