Offaly fall short against Westmeath

Killian Daly of Westmeath out jumps Niall Smith of Offaly and his teammate Dennis Corroon

Offaly failed to put back-to-back Leinster championship wins together for the first time since 2006 as their courageous second-half comeback fell just short in a 0-13 to 0-12 loss at Cusack Park.

Westmeath now face Kildare in the Leinster semi-final in two weeks time, and they have late points from Kieran Martin and wing-back James Dolan to thank for their spot in the last four.

Offaly trailed by six points at the interval after a less than convincing opening 35 minutes, but with Peter Cunningham driving the team from deep, they came within a point of backing up their victory over Longford in the first round.

Both Graham Guilfoyle and Nigel Dunne were deservedly black carded in the second-half for Offaly and losing two of their most influential players didn't help their cause any at crucial moments in the game.

In defeat Offaly now enter the qualifiers where they host London in two weekends' time, while Westmeath will hope to reach the Leinster final for the second year in succession.

John Heslin of Westmeath in action against Sean Pender, left, and Brian Darby, right, of Offaly

With the wind behind them in the first-half, Westmeath looked to have recaptured some of the form that saw them into last summer's provincial decider as they raced into a 0-9 to 0-3 lead at the interval.

Offaly had huge issues trying to curb the influence of John Heslin from the off and the Westmeath attacker kicked three early points to help his side into a 0-4 to 0-0 lead after 16 minutes - thanks largely to the creative play of John Connellan at centre-forward.

But as Offaly began to gain the upperhand around midfield, they briefly rallied midway through the first-half and after Dunne got off the mark, Bernard Allen and Guilfoyle kicked good points to cut the lead to one point.

But in the closing 13 minutes of the half Westmeath took control and kicked an unanswered five points, two of which came from Paul Sharry, while Connellan also clipped over his second to add to that six-point lead at the break.

Westmeath would have been disappointed to see their forwards notch up four bad wides in the opening minutes of the second-half, but by and large, Offaly dominated the first 20 minutes after the restart as Dunne and Cunningham helped them to six of the next seven points as they cut the deficit to one point.

Ger Egan of Westmeath celebrates his side's victory

But Westmeath settled again when Heslin pointed 15 minutes from time, and despite Offaly pulling to within one score on three more occasions, they kicked on to the win thanks to Martin's point in the 66th minute and another from the outstanding James Dolan to seal the win in added-time.

Westmeath: D Quinn; K Daly, F Boyle, J Gonoud; J Dolan (0-1), A Stone, K Maguire; D Corroon (0-1), G Egan; D Lynch, J Connellan (0-3), C McCormack; P Sharry (0-2, 1'45), K Martin (0-1), J Heslin (0-5, 2f).

Subs: J Egan for Lynch (39), B Sayeh for McCormack (56), D Daly for J Egan (64), P Fagan for K Daly (65), L Dolan for Connellan (67).

Offaly: A Mulhall; S Pender, E Rigney, B Darby; N Darby, P Cunningham (0-2), J O'Connor; E Carroll, N Smith; G Guilfoyle (0-1), N Dunne (0-6, 5f), M Brazil; B Allen (0-1), N McNamee (0-1), J Moloney (0-1).

Subs: A Sullivan for Guilfoyle (44 BC), N Bracken for Brazil (53), S Doyle for Allen (60), C Donohue for Dunne (71 BC).

Referee: Padraig O'Sullivan (Kerry).