Lake superior but 14-man Kerry push them hard

DESPITE having an extra man for over an hour, Westmeath made hard work of seeing off Kerry in Mullingar where they booked a Division 2A final date with Down next weekend.

It was 0-2 apiece when Kerry were dealt a major blow with the red-carding of the experienced Mikey Boyle in the 11th minute. Kerry led by 0-5 to 0-3 when windassisted Westmeath pounced for a Niall Mitchell goal in the 19th minute.

In the third minute of addedtime, Mitchell teed up Lake County sub and former Galway player Davy Glennon, who rifled to the roof of the net to put his side 2-9 to 0-10 up at the interval.

Westmeath were unable to open any meaningful gap on the restart despite having the extra man. Glennon was extremely influential for Joe Fortune’s charges, while at the other end long deliveries by the Kerry men were generally mopped up by the Westmeath defence in which Darragh Egerton and Tommy Doyle excelled.

Dual star Fionan Mackessy was regularly to the fore in defence for Stephen Molumphy’s troops and his great point in the 67th minute left his side trailing by the minimum (2-15 to 0-20).

However, the Lake County finished the stronger and might have won with a bit more to spare but a goalbound strike from Glennon was superbly saved by Louis Dee deep into added-time.

A last-gasp effort by Shane Conway to create a goal chance from a ‘65’ was thwarted and