Kerry stun wasteful Westmeath to blow Joe McDonagh Cup wide open

Underdogs Kerry stunned a very wasteful Westmeath in the opening round of the Joe McDonagh Cup in Mullingar to win by six points.

The Kingdom weren’t at all expected to be able to compete with the Division 1 outfit. Stephen Molumphy’s men, however, really thundered into this contest from the outset, going four points to no score clear even before the home side had their first shot of the game.

Every time Westmeath got a little bit of momentum up – such as in the wake of a Tommy Doyle goal in the second half – the Kingdom always had the capacity to respond.

Indeed, coming into time added on a goal by Maurice O’Connor – following a long, raking pass by man-of-the-match Fionán Mackessy – made certain of the victory.

Already leading by three points at that stage, 0-19 to 1-13, the green and gold were likely winners regardless, especially with Westmeath continuing to miss so many chances.

Westmeath will certainly be left frustrated by that aspect of their own performance. They missed a couple of goal-scoring chances in the first half, and ended up with a whopping 18 missed chances in all.

On other days this year that has been the Kingdom’s lot, on this occasion though Kerry had a conversion rate of 72pc. Considering they struggled at times during the league to get close to 50pc, the level of improvement was noteworthy.

One felt that Kerry caught the home side a little by surprise with their intensity, desire, and crispness of their hurling, particularly in the opening quarter, but even as Westmeath got to grips, closing to three at half-time 0-6 to 0-9, Kerry would have been satisfied.

Still Westmeath looked to have a touch more momentum about them at that juncture. Coming towards the end of the third quarter that’s how it looked too, Westmeath back to within a point on 46 minutes thanks to a point by Killian Boyle, 0-11 to 0-12.

The home side could have had the ball in the back of the net through Joey Boyle on 47 minutes. Instead, however, he blasted wide. The story of Westmeath’s day as Kerry pushed on again.

The competition now blown wide open.

SCORERS – Westmeath: K Doyle 0-11 (7f), T Doyle 1-1, A Clarke 0-1, S McGovern 0-1. Kerry: M O’Connor 1-10 (10-f), F Mackessy 0-4 (2f), R Walsh 0-3, K O’Connor 0-1, K Hayes 0-1, D Shanahan 0-1

WESTMEATH: N Conaty, J Bermingham, T Doyle, K Regan, D Egerton, A Clarke, C McCormack, R Greville, S McGovern, N Mitchell, K Doyle, O McCabe, D Clinton, J Boyle, J Gillen Subs: D Williams for D Clinton, 29, D O’Reilly for J Gillen, 29, P Clarke for S McGovern, 41, E Keyes for O McCabe, 49, C Doyle for J Boyle, 29

KERRY: L Dee, E Murphy, F McCarthy, D Griffin, K O’Connor, F Mackessy, E Leen, D Shanahan, C Walsh, R Walsh, K Hayes, N Mulcahy, L Crowley, M Leane, M O’Connor Subs: G Dooley for N Mulcahy, 44, B Barrett for L Crowley, 55, D Woulfe for M Leane, 55, B Keane for F McCarthy, 70(+1) Blood: B Keane for E Leen, 67-70

REF: S Cleere (Kilkenny)

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