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Garrycastle And St. Lomans Set Up 2019 Repeat In Westmeath Football Final

Monday, 1 November 2021 16:30

The Downs and Coralstown Kinnegad bowed out yesterday afternoon.

St. Lomans and Garrycastle will meet for the third time in the Westmeath Senior Football final. 

Interestingly both previous meetings in 2009 and '19 have ended in victory for Garrycastle.

St. Lomans had to work very hard to continue their strong record of seven county finals on the spin in their win over Coralstown-Kinnegad.

A late trademark run from Fola Ayorinde split the Coralstown-Kinnegad defence and the Westmeath inter-county star finished the move off with aplomb to send their support into raptures and complete a comeback fit for a county semi-final. 

St. Lomans had trailed for the enture second-half, having earlier established a 1-4 to 0-1 lead at the first water break. 

They then managed to double their 1-7 score in the final fifteen minute period to come out on the right side of a 2-14 to 1-13 win. 

Speaking afterwards, manager Declan Kelly said:

It wasn't looking good in fairness and we sort of plugged it back to a draw and the goal put a bit of daylight in it.  But it wasn't a four point margin on the pitch. 

Starts have been a bit of an issue for us in the last number of games and we had a good first quarter but I don't think we scored in the second quarter and they dominated. Early on in the second half too they were very dominant. 

We got a few points to get us back into it with a few minutes to go but it was a very tight one. 

On his substitutions during the game:

It is a panel at the end of the day and you're trying to look at the squad of players and asking them that come on to give you an impact.

They were fresh legs and it was heavy out there which it might not look at the moment. You were always going to need something coming off the bench. 

In these situations you need your big players to step up and John Heslin came out and won a few big kick-outs for us and Ronan O'Toole chipped in an kicked a  couple of scores in the last ten minutes.

it's those big players you need to perform. 

And looking ahead to the final:

Two very experienced camps....don't ask me to call it. I got about three quarters of their game when they get ahead of you they know how to close the game out. 

We're hoping to have a couple of injured players back in the mix come the final but we will probably know a bit more Tuesday night on the injury front. 

Before that in TEG Cusack Park, Garrycastle avenged a quarter-final defeat to overcome table topping The Downs and advance to the final. 

Two spurts of scoring to begin each half ultimately proved enough for the 2019 champions as they sat backed and absorbed what their opponents had to offer going forward. 

They scored two goals in the opening two minutes and another 1-2 to kick-off the second half which really put The Downs up against it to qualify. 

The Downs will be ruing another semi-final defeat after coming up short for the second year in a row and will now have questions to answer going forward. 

Garrycastle have a good record in finals over at eight from eleven but will be sweating on the availability of Cathal Mannion after he was shown a red card. 

They will no doubt go through the appeals process but it remains to be seen if that will be successful. 

Speaking afterwards Garrycastle stalwart Doron Harte said: 

Delighted to get the win in fairness. Three goals went in and that's something to work on for the final but semi-finals are all about winning and we're delighted to make the decider. 

That loss to The Downs last year niggled us so great to get that out of the system. 

Starting fast was an area we tried to work on and it was great to get the couple of goals to start things off and give us a platform from there on it.

Then come out again at the start of the second half and get the goal it allowed us to sit off and even when they did come back into it, we never panicked. 

It's my 21st year playing senior football so it is great to be going back into a final and I'll be delighted if we can win that cup. 

St. Lomans probably have the best forwards in the county. Any county team would be delighted to have the last at their disposal. 

They were sloppy goals to give away. Our pressing and energy levels dropped a small bit so that's something to work on. If we concede goals like that in the final we won't be winning anything. But it's great to have the chance to do those things. 

Two weeks is a short turnaround so you'll be hopeful any muscle injuries are just dead legs and we will go into the final fighting fit. 

We've no cup yet to celebrate so we will do the celebrating hopefully when we lift the cup. 

Results: 

Garycastle 3-12 - 3-7 The Downs

St. Lomans 2-14 - 1-13 Coralstown-Kinnegad 

Final - November 14th - TEG Cusack Park 

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