Westmeath demolish Laois to advance to quarter-finals

Westmeath have advanced to the quarter-finals of the Tailteann Cup after a surprisingly facile win against an off-colour Laois side in Mullingar.

Nigel Harte put the home team ahead after a mere 15 seconds and Robbie Forde soon doubled this lead from a free. Ronan Coffey halved the deficit from a free, before Matthew Whittaker's powerful shot at the other end came back off the crossbar in the sixth minute, but his side still led by 0-04 to 0-03 with 13 minutes on the clock.

The outstanding Sam McCartan took centre stage at the midpoint of the first half when he scored a quickfire brace of quality two-pointers from play. Westmeath’s defending was very good at this juncture and Justin McNulty’s charges were struggling to get in for scores.

A rapid-fire brace of points from Brian Byrne and Kevin Swayne had the visitors within four points of their hosts, but Dermot McCabe’s men finished the first half very strongly.

A foul on the hard-working Shane Allen gave the hitherto-anonymous Luke Loughlin who, in fairness, had received a lot of pre-match attention from the Westmeath masseur, the opportunity to open his account by superbly converting the ensuing spot kick in the 33rd minute.

After a neat point from Stephen Smith the hooter sounded, but Westmeath sensed the opportunity to increase their advantage and duly did so when skipper Ronan Wallace finished off a great move by finding the net from point-blank range.

Wind-assisted Westmeath led by 2-12 to 0-07 at the interval.

Laois needed a good start upon the resumption, but they never really threatened to make it into a real contest.

Indeed, Westmeath had extended their advantage to 14 points (2-16 to 0-08) when Whittaker atoned for his earlier goal miss by scoring a wonderful individual three-pointer in the 42nd minute. The Lake County men went on to lead by 3-22 to 0-09 at the end of the third quarter.

The O’Moore County outfit had a brief purple patch when they scored five points without reply between the 58th and 64th minutes, including their only two-pointer of the match from a free taken by goalkeeper Killian Roche.

However, two more points from the best player on show, Sam McCartan, either side of a neat score by Kevin O’Sullivan preceded the full-time hooter.

Westmeath strangely opted to play on and when Loughlin’s goal attempt was blocked, Laois got a consolation goal from sub Jonah Kelly to round off a bitterly disappointing display from their perspective.