Garrycastle (Westmeath), 2009 beaten finalists, qualified for this year's Leinster club SFC semi-finals with a gritty win (2-13 to 2-10) over Louth standard bearers Mattock Rangers at Cusack Park, Mullingar.

The hosts looked the business early on as they cantered their way into an impressive 0-5 to 0-1 lead by the end of the first quarter.

Mattock found it difficult to curtail the influence of Westmeath star Dessie Dolan who accounted for two of his side's early points with a brace of superb 45s.

But Dolan and co. were left shell-shocked in the second quarter as Rangers bagged a brace of well-taken goals.

The first major was a classy solo effort by Adrian Reid and then soon after Niall Sharkey made good some excellent work by Christy Grimes to fire high into the Garrycastle net.

Ahead by 2-4 to 0-8 at the interval, Mattock went further ahead within 30 seconds of the restart when Darren Brennan pointed.

However in carbon copy-like fashion, the Rangers took a leaf out of their opponents' book to nab a brace of quick-fire goals in the 32nd and 33rd minutes.

Paddy Mulvihill began the Garrycastle fightback by finding the net after latching onto Aidan Browne's free kick.

In their next attack, Garrycastle again hit the jackpot with Mulvihill netting again to help the homesters into a three point lead entering the final quarter.

David Reid shot two great points for the Wee County champions but they must have known they were going to be out of luck when Reid's fisted effort came back off the Garrycastle crossbar late on and Shane Mulvihill tacked on a vital point shortly afterwards. Tweet

Most Read Stories