Wasteful Westmeath spurn late chances

WESTMEATH and Carlow shared the points in a niggly Division 3 encounter at Mullingar yesterday with both sides picking up red and black cards.

Westmeath started brightly with a brace of points from Ger Egan in the opening four minutes. Carlow responded well with points from Darragh Foley and Lee Walker before a mix-up in the home defence saw Darragh O’Brien tee up Foley for a 10thminute goal.

Westmeath lost Ronan Foley to the sin bin in the 16th minute, and Carlow’s possession game enabled them to stay narrowly in front. The Barrowsiders were in command on 35 minutes when Westmeath’s Finbar Coyne fisted into the net from a high delivery. The goal left the home team trailing by just a single point.

A free by Murphy deep into added-time doubled Carlow’s lead to 1-6 to 1-4 at half-time.

After the break, Westmeath halved the deficit in unusual fashion when Egan slotted over a free after the referee moved in the original ’45 award.

Lake County captain Kieran Martin picked up a second yellow card in the 43rd minute.

Carlow still led by the bare minimum when Brendan Murphy rifled home a 54thminute goal.

Four successive points – the best of them a long-range shot from O’Toole – levelled the contest by the hour mark, at which stage both teams had 14 men after Lee Walker was redcarded in the 58th minute.

His colleague Chris Crowley was sin-binned in the 66th minute, but neither side was able to add to their total in the closing minutes, Westmeath spurning the better opportunities in a tense finale.