Westmeath complete stunning comeback to beat Meath for the first time

Westmeath made history at Croke Park after coming from 10 points down to beat Meath for the first time in championship history.

The Lake County looked dead and buried after Brian McMahon netted twice inside a minute to give Meath an eight-point interval lead.

However, Kieran Martin’s second goal of the afternoon sparked an amazing comeback as they outscored Meath by 2-8 to 0-1 in the final 20 minutes, John Heslin grabbing their third maximum in the last minute to complete an amazing 3-19 to 2-18 victory.

It was an incredible turnaround and one that didn’t look likely during a one-sided first half, where Westmeath failed to implement their sweeper system correctly and left their full-back line exposed against Meath’s pacy forwards.

The Royal County led by 0-8 to 0-1 after 22 minutes but Westmeath were given hope when Martin, moved into attack after an unsuccessful spell as a sweeper, was played through on goal by Heslin and finished confidently.

Shane Dempsey added a point to reduce arrears to three points but Meath hit back with two quick-fire goals from McMahon.

A crossfield pass caught out two Westmeath defenders and McMahon punished them by lashing a shot to the roof of the net, and the corner-forward repeated the trick from the resultant kickout as the Meath attack once again burned their opponents with searing pace.

Late points from Martin and Heslin left Westmeath trailing by 2-12 to 1-7 at the break, and although substitute John Connellan added two more after the restart, Meath had extended their lead to nine points by the 49th minute.

But the harsh black-carding of Graeme Reilly unsettled Meath and they conceded a second goal on 50 minutes when Martin took Denis Glennon’s pass and fired a low shot underneath Paddy O’Rourke.

Four unanswered points followed to make it a two-point game, and although Mickey Newman replied with a free for Meath, the momentum remained with Westmeath.

Donncha Tobin became the second Meath player to be black-carded on 61 minutes for a needles jersey pull on Connellan. Heslin converted the free and added another minutes later to reduce arrears to the minimum.

Martin brought Westmeath level with five minutes remaining when he raced in from the sideline and fisted over the bar, and he repeated the trick on 69 minutes to put his side in front for the first time.

A historic success was sealed in injury time when Heslin found the bottom corner of O’Rourke’s net. The Meath goalkeeper was sent off moments later for an ugly challenge on Martin but that failed to dampen an incredible afternoon for the Lake County.

Westmeath: D Quinn; K Daly, K Maguire, J Gilligan; P Holloway, K Martin (2-3), J Dolan; P Sharry (0-2, 2 ’45), D Daly; R Connellan (0-1), G Egan, D Corroon; L Smyth, J Heslin (1-9, 5f), S Dempsey (0-2).

Subs: J Connellan (0-2) for D Daly (27), J Gonoud for K Daly (29), D Lynch for Smyth (ht), D Glennon for Dempsey (38), P Greville for Gilligan (58), J Egan for Corroon (64).

Meath: P O’Rourke; J McEntee, C McGill, D Tobin; M Burke, D Keogan, B Menton (0-1); H Rooney, K Reilly; G Reilly (0-4), P Harnan, A Tormey (0-2, 2f); E Wallace (0-4), S Bray (0-3), B McMahon (2-2).

Subs: D Dalton for Burke (44), M Newman (0-2, 1f) for Reilly (47, black card), B Power for Tormey (59), J Wallace for Tobin (62, black card).

Ref: C Lane (Cork).