Westmeath recovered from a disastrous start to overcome Wicklow by 1-16 to 2-8 in today’s Allianz Football League Division 3 first round clash at TEG Cusack Park.

Goals from Darragh Fitzgerald and Eoin Darcy in the second and 13th minutes saw the wind-assisted visitors taking an unlikely 2-3 to 0-1 lead.

Points from John Heslin (0-7) and Luke Loughlin helped Westmeath to erase some of the early damage, as they went in at the break trailing 2-6 to 0-7, and within six minutes of the restart their deficit would be gone.

Heslin and Ronan O’Toole struck points before Sam McCartan hammered into the Wicklow net and, from there, Jack Cooney’s charges romped to victory with Heslin and substitutes Nigel Harte and Lorcan Dolan to the fore.

In Ardee, Laois bounced back from their O’Byrne Cup final loss to hand Louth a 3-9 to 1-10 defeat on opening weekend.

Gary Walsh’s goal had the O’Moore men leading by 1-7 to 0-8 at the halfway stage and two quickfire goals from wing-back Sean O’Flynn and Walsh early in the restart proved too much for Mickey Harte’s men to recover from.

Tweet

Most Read Stories