Dolan keeps Lake afloat

THREE first-half goals was enough to earn a first win of the season for Westmeath, who took a big step towards Division 3 survival with this win over their relegation rivals Limerick at the Gaelic Grounds.

James Dolan twice struck goals in the opening half for the Lake County and John Heslin palmed a third before the turnaround for Tom Cribbin’s side, who were dominant for long periods last night.

Ian Ryan was in top form as usual from placed balls for Limerick, knocking over three frees but the home side had little answer for the power of their visitors, and now face a huge bat- tle to stay in the third tier next season.

Westmeath: D Quinn; K Daly, F Boyle (A Stone 63), K Maguire; D Lynch (J Donoghue 66), K Martin (P Greville 58), P Holloway; D Corroon, P Sharry; R Connellan (S Daly 60), J Heslin, J Dolan; J Connellan (R Foley 24) (J Egan 58), C McCormack, S Dempsey.

scorers: J Dolan 2-0, J Heslin 1-4 (0-3f), C McCormack 0-5, K Martin, S Dempsey 0-2, R Connellan 0-1 (0-1f).

Limerick: D O’Sullivan; S O’Dea, S Flanagan (K Fahy h-t), J McCarthy; P White (S Cahill 32), P Browne, I Corbett; T Lee, D Tracey; P Ranahan (P Nash h-t), C Sheehan, S Buckley (K Ryan 6); S McSweeney (S Kelly 56 BC), D Neville, I Ryan (J Lee 54).

scorers: I Ryan 0-3 (0-3f), P Nash 0-2 (0-1f), I Corbett, T Lee 0-1.

referee: John Hickey (Carlow).