Kildare miss out as Westmeath book Leinster Final spot
Ben McCormack wears a look of dejection after Kildare were beaten by Westmeath Photo: ©INPHO/James Lawlor
Kildare suffered a fourth Leinster semi-final defeat in succession as Westmeath deservedly took the spoils in extra-time at Glenisk O’Connor Park in Tullamore.
It was no hard luck story. Westmeath shaded the kickout and shot conversion statistics and crucially plundered the game’s two goals, with man-of-the-match Brandon Kelly’s extra-time green flag ultimately dragging them over the line after a battle that was dramatic at times but of a low enough quality, as befitting two teams who will operate in Division 3 next year.
Kildare started strongly enough, with Callum Bolton involved in most of their positive moments and Ben Loakman knocking over three points from play and they were 0-7 to 0-3 ahead when Darragh Kirwan pointed in the 21st minute.
They might have been further ahead, but Eoin Cully shot too close to goalkeeper Jason Daly having been put through by Bolton in the tenth minute and five minutes later the Carbury player provided Kirwan with another goal chance that was also squandered. At the other end Kevin Feely’s block denied Kelly.
Westmeath, missing scoring talisman Luke Loughlin with a hamstring injury and with Matthew Whittaker forced off within thirteen minutes after trying to play with a heavily strapped lower leg injury, wrestled complete control of the kick-outs in the run-up to half-time and fashioned 1-5 without reply between the 23rd and 31st minutes. That spell proved crucial in putting Kildare on the backfoot for the remainder of the afternoon.
The Lake Men took the lead for the first time through Kelly in the 28th minute (0-8 to 0-7) and when Kildare lost their fourth restart in a row midfielder Brían Cooney got the better of Tommy Gill a little too easily in the right corner of Kildare’s defence and lashed a shot to the top Cian Burke’s net from the acutest of angles. The Clane netminder won’t look back on that, or the game in general, with much affection.
With Westmeath players almost blowing kisses to the crowd such was their self-belief at this stage they may have forgotten briefly that there was only a four-point gap and Sam McCartan blew an opportunity to extend that by a further two when he shanked a two-point free.
Kildare took that reprieve and ran with it. Darragh Swords raised an orange flag from play and Eoin Cully made it a one-point game (1-8 to 0-10) just before the half-time hooter. Having played poorly for much of the half the Lilywhites were probably relatively pleased to go in only a point in arrears.
Half-time substitute Ben McCormack set up Cully to equalise within three minutes of the restart, but another Westmeath burst yielded 0-4 without reply with McCartan finding the range with another attempt at a two-point free.
Kildare manager Brian Flanagan wasn’t long in calling for Alex Beirne off the bench and with his first real involvement the Naas forward smartly converted a two-point free before the hard-working Brendan Gibbons robbed Ray Connellan and stayed involved in the move to set up Kirwan for a fisted point.
The Lilywhites had already shot two second half wides at that stage on the way to recording thirteen overall, and three in a row from Swords, Bolton and Gill were confidence draining at a time when Westmeath were starting to look leggy.
No better man than Kevin Feely to show the younger players where the posts are, though, and he levelled the game at 0-15 to 1-12 on 55 minutes.
But again Westmeath knuckled down. McCartan raised another orange flag from a free and then another from play as his influence grew and with ten minutes left Kildare were three behind.
Another sub, Jack Robinson was bottled up when he had half a sniff of a goal, but he cleverly stepped back out of the traffic and fired over a point and with Westmeath becoming wasteful and looking a little weary, Cully and Kirwan shot a point apiece to equalise with three minutes left.
They just couldn’t get their noses ahead, though, and Westmeath centre-back Shane Allen was given too much room to perform a passable impression of Donegal’s Kevin Cassidy from 2011. Westmeath must have thought that was the clincher.
With the hooter imminent though, Beirne stood up to the plate, gaining possession just inside the arc and calmly shooting the leveller to take the game to extra-time (0-19 to 1-16).
Kildare should have carried the momentum from that reprieve into extra-time, and, in fairness, they started it with Kirwan’s fourth point of a hit-and-miss performance from the Naas man. That gave them the lead for the first-time since the 27th minute and after Ronan Wallace, another Westmeath dangerman who wasn’t in the full of his health, levelled, Brian McLoughlin’s free put Kildare one up again (0-21 to 1-17).
But the game’s crucial moment arrived seven minutes into extra-time. Cooney again snuck in behind the defensive cover to avail of a pass from Robbie Forde and although Burke did well to bat away his shot, Kelly was on hand to palm into the bottom left corner.
Colm Moran pulled a point back, but Westmeath full-back Charlie Drumm made it 2-18 to 0-22 at the interval.
Nerves and tiredness perhaps played their part in the second period with both sides missing three scoring chances before Forde stretched the Westmeath lead to three. Robinson with a brilliant effort from the right-wing responded but that was to be Kildare’s last score with four minutes remaining.
Eoghan McCabe took advantage of a gift courtesy of Cian Burke’s errant pass and with a minute left on the clock Kelly stretched the gap to an unmanageable four points as Kildare ran out of road and ideas.
Westmeath face Dublin in the Leinster decider on 17 May while Kildare will now be away to one of the provincial finalists in the opening round of the All-Ireland series. Just like against Louth at the same stage last year it was a huge opportunity passed up by the Lilywhites but, on this occasion, they can have no complaints. Their performance simply did not warrant the reward of a first provincial final since 2023.
Jason Daly; Daniel Scahill, Charlie Drumm 0-1, Tadhg Baker 0-1; Ronan Wallace 0-1, Shane Allen 0-1, Matthew Whittaker; Brían Cooney 1-0, Ray Connellan 0-2 (1f); Kevin O’Sullivan 0-1, Sam McCartan 0-5 (2 tpfs), Conor Dillon; Shane Corcoran 0-1, Senan Baker 0-2, Brandon Kelly 1-4. Subs: Shane Ormsby for Whittaker 13, Robbie Forde 0-1 for O’Sullivan 52, Danny McCartan for S Baker 55, Ian Martin for Corcoran 59, Eoghan McCabe 0-1 for Allen 69, O’Sullivan for McCabe ET, Adam Treanor for Dillon ET, Corcoran for Martin ET, Whittaker for S McCartan 76.
Cian Burke; Harry O’Neill, Mark Dempsey, Ryan Burke; Brian Byrne, Eoin Lawlor, James McGrath; Kevin Feely 0-1, Brendan Gibbons; Tommy Gill 0-1, Darragh Swords 0-2 (tp), Callum Bolton 0-1; Ben Loakman 0-3, Darragh Kirwan 0-4, Eoin Cully 0-4. Subs: Ben McCormack for O’Neill HT, Alex Beirne 0-3 (1tpf) for Loakman 44, Brian McLoughlin 0-1 (f) for Swords 52, Jack Robinson 0-2 for Bolton 59, Colm Moran 0-1 for McGrath 65, Pádraic Spillane for Gill ET, Colm Dalton for R Burke 76, James Harris for Lawlor 79.
Martin McNally (Monaghan).
