On a very sunny Saturday in TEG Cusack Park, our hurlers hosted Carlow in Round 2 of the Joe McDonagh Cup looking to build on their win from Ruislip the previous week.
The game ebbed and flowed as the sides exchanged scores and the lead moved from one to the other.
At half time, it was Westmeath 1-13 to Carlow’s 2-10, it was anyone’s game!
Goals from the visitors made it difficult for Westmeath to keep up but at 50 minutes in, the sides were still level. Carlow found their purple patch and slotted over score after score putting 6 between the sides. Despite a resilient comeback from O’Brien’s men, they just fell short of finding those final scores.
We play Laois now in 2 weeks (May 9th) in TEG Cusack Park.
Carlow: Brian Tracey; Paul Doyle, Dion Wall, Jack McCullagh; Fiach O’Toole, Kevin McDonald, Fiachra Fitzpatrick (0-05); Jon Nolan, Ciaran Whelan; Paddy Boland, Marty Kavanagh (1-08, 0-05 frees, 0-01 ‘65’), James Doyle (1-01); Donagh Murphy (0-02), Conor Kehoe (1-01), Chris Nolan (1-00).
Subs: Evan Kealy (0-02) for Boland (48), Jake Nolan (0-01) for Murphy (51), Conaill Fitzpatrick (65), John Michael Nolan for Kehoe (70+1).
Westmeath: Sean Jackson; Shane Williams (0-03), Conor Shaw, Naoise McKenna; Jack Gillen, Johnny Bermingham, Rory Keyes; Andrew Shaw (0-01), Peter Murphy (0-01); Eamonn Cunneen (0-03), David Williams (0-07, 0-04 frees, 0-01 ‘65’), Kevin Regan (0-01); Darragh McCormack (0-02), Eoin Keyes (0-01), Killian Doyle (1-03).
Subs: Mark Cunningham for A Shaw (52), Jack Kearney (0-01) for Murphy (56), Darragh Egerton for Bermingham (inj., 59), Josh Coll for Regan (62), Adam Bate for Gillen (67).
