Westmeath’s minor hurlers and footballers were both in action in the past week in the backdoor section of the Leinster championship. Carlow provided the opposition in both codes and after two tight encounters it was a case of one apiece as Carlow took the hurling spoils and The Lakelanders scraped through in the football.
The hurlers put in a below-par performance when they welcomed Carlow to Cusack Park. Trailing 0-10 to 0-5 at the break they did raise their game in the second half to cut the deficit to just a single point but in the end it was the visitors who progressed. Despite some good individual performance this was a short and disappointing campaign for the Lakelanders.
On the football front Tom Carr’s side were hoping to get their season back on track when they travelled to Dr Cullen Park on Wednesday evening. Trailing 1-5 to 0-6 at the break and four points down with 11 minutes remaining it looked as if they were going to follow our minor hurlers out the championship exit door.
Any team that has Ger Leech on board (he kicked 0-10 in total ) cannot be written off however and a general improvement throughout the team saw them reel in the home side and bring the game to extra time.
Carr’s men, despite being reduced to 14 in the opening period of extra time, looked the better side at this stage and late points from Leech and Sam Moran was enough to see them through to a quarter-final meeting away to Wicklow on Saturday week.
