Westmeath booked their place in the Leinster SHC quarterfinal courtesy of a 1-18 to 1-13 victory over Kerry at Austin Stack Park this afternoon.

A strong second half display saw the men from the Midlands earn their victory as they came from a four-point deficit at the break to win by five points.

Kerry never performed in the second half as the visitors took the game to them and Derek McNicholas' goal cancelled out Mikey Boyle's three-pointer in the first half.

The opening 35 saw seven different Westmeath scorers on the scoresheet, but they still trailed by four points at the break.

Eoin Price opened the scoring in the first minute, but Kerry took over in the next six minutes as Shane Nolan (2) and John Egan pointed them in front.

Liam Varley got a good score for Westmeath, before a long ball into the Westmeath square broke and Mikey Boyle was on hand to whip the ball into the back of the net, 1-03 to 0-02.

Four points on the trot for the Midlanders saw the sides level before Jack Goulding hit two very good scores as Kerry stepped up a gear again.

Brendan O'Leary and the industrious Robbie Greville exchanged points to leave it 1-06 to 0-7 after 28 minutes. But two frees from Nolan ended the scoring in the opening period.

Westmeath hit four points on the trot at the start of the second half as Price, Boyle (2) and O'Brien found the target to level matters.

Boyle put Kerry back in front before McNicholas stole in behind the Kingdom's defence and flashed his shot to the back of the net to put Westmeath 1-11 to 1-08 in front by the 40^th minute.

McNicholas, O'Brien and a long range effort by Aonghus Clarke saw Westmeath lead by 1-14 to 1-09 by 47^th minute.

The sides each scored four points for the remainder of the game as Westmeath never looked in danger of letting their lead slip.

Kerry's woes were compounded when Mikey Boyle recieved a straight red card right on the stroke of full time.

Westmeath - P Maloney; S Power, T Doyle, T Gallagher; A Craig, G Greville, A Clarke (0-1); C Boyle (0-3), E Price (0-2); A Devine (0-1), D McNicholas (1-3), R Greville (0-1); L Varley (0-1), D Egerton, N O'Brien (0-5, 4f). Subs: N Mitchell for T Gallagher, B Murtagh (0-1) for D Egerton, W Casserly for A Devine, D Clinton for L Varley, C Shaw for S Power.

Kerry - A McCabe; B Murphy, P Kelly, K Carmody; J Diggins, D Dineen, T Murnane; J Griffin, D Collins; B O'Leary (0-2), M O'Leary, S Nolan (0-4f); J Goulding (0-2), M Boyle (1-1), J Egan (0-1). Subs: P Lucid (0-2f) for S Nolan, J Conway for M O'Leary, T Casey for J Griffin, J Buckley for D Collins, B Barrett (0-1) for J Goulding.

Referee - J Keenan.

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