First half goals from debutants Mark Gorman and Dermot Bannon helped an experimental Westmeath to a fortuitous victory over DIT in their O'Byrne Cup clash at Mullingar. Westmeath...2-8 DIT....0-12 The goals, which came within the opening 11 minutes, gave the Lake County a 2-4 to 0-7 lead at the interval and they held on in the second half to claim victory against a DIT team that was guilty of missing at least four goal chances. As early as the third minute, Dublin star Mark Vaughan struck the upright and the same player also missed a glorious opportunity later in the half after being set up by Meath's Cian Ward. By contrast, Westmeath weren't nearly as wasteful and they were never headed after Gorman and Athlone clubman Bannon netted in a devastating 90-second spell. Tomas O'Flatharta's charges extended their lead to four points when the impressive Mickey Greene fired over after the restart, but DIT replied with scores from Kevin McMenamin and John Donegan. Two Tommy Cleary points eased the pressure on Westmeath, but despite the introduction of Dessie Dolan in the final quarter, the home side remained under the cosh and it took a late point from Cork native Greene to see them through a second round meeting with Dublin next weekend. Tweet

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