Minor Footballers Make It Three Wins From Three In Leinster Championship

DUBLIN 4-19 

WESTMEATH 2-12 

Dublin confirmed top spot and their third successive success in Group 2 of the Electric Ireland Leinster Minor Football Championship following their thirteen point victory over Westmeath at Parnell Park on Wednesday evening.

With victories over Louth and Meath already secured, the Dubs served early notice of their intent with midfielder Senan Ryan popping up with a score inside thirty seconds.

The visitors managed to level matters through Cillian Geary soon after and while Lenny Cahill replied with a brace of scores in the 6th minute, Westmeath kept in the hunt initially through a free from Paul Keegan three minutes later.

However, with Dublin enjoying a monopoly on possession, Westmeath’s defence began to creak with Cahill adding two further points from placed balls before Ryan added another fine score from play to push his side 0-6 to 0-2 clear by the 13th minute.

Matters improved even further for the hosts a minute later as Harry Curley delivered a precise ball that released Cahill through on goal and the Castleknock clubman provided an audacious lobbed effort over the stranded Luke Nicholson in the away goal.

The procession towards the Westmeath goal continued unabated through points by Adam Rock, Ryan and Cahill with the visitors offered brief respite through an excellent point from play by Keegan.

Cahill added another facile free before the hosts added a second goal in the 24th minute as Paddy Curry showed the required composure to fire past Nicholson from ten yards.

The marauding Rock kicked his second score approaching the break but Westmeath were handed a lifeline in the 30th minute as Kealen Connell’s point attempt from a mark deceived Calvin Fennelly in the Dublin goal to trim their deficit to ten points (2-11 to 1-4) by half-time.

Cheekiest of chips tonight from Dublin's Lenny Cahill that even Andrea Pirlo would be proud of

FT@DubGAAOfficial 4-19@westmeath_gaa 2-12

Watch full game On-Demand https://t.co/8RTIDVIpju pic.twitter.com/lOtLGKYfy4

— Clubber (@clubber) April 26, 2023

The second-half resumed with a glut of scores and although Cahill opened the scoring for Dublin, it was the visitors that impressed through scores in quick succession from Shane Cully, Daire O’Connor and Matty Thornton.

However, Dublin still looked a potent threat at the opposite end and duly added a third goal in the 38th minute as Curry and Cahill combined before the former palmed home from close range.

In what was a far more even half, Westmeath continued to impress and gained reward for their efforts as O’Connor calmly slotted home a penalty in the 51st minute following a foul on Aodhan Curran.

The chances continued to come thick and fast with Ryan bringing his personal tally to 0-5 while the excellent Cahill had the last word as he found the roof of the net in added time from Curry’s pass.

Scorers – Dublin: L Cahill 2-10 (0-8f), P Curry 2-0, S Ryan 0-5, A Rock 0-2, N Byrne, B Kennedy 0-1 each. Westmeath: D O’Connor 1-3 (1-0 pen, 0-1 ‘45’), K Connell 1-2 (1-0 mark), S Cully 0-3 (1f), P Keegan 0-2 (1f), C Geary, M Thornton 0-1 each.

Dublin: C Fennelly; C O’Connor, C Emmett, J O’Sullivan; A Rock, E Costello, R Mitchell; S Ryan, A O’Reilly; C McAweeney, H Curley, N Byrne; P Curry, C Johnston, L Cahill. Subs: C O’Dwyer for Johnston (half-time), L Sweeney for Costello (half-time), B Kennedy for McAweeney (43), C Harty for Emmett (47), M Haas for O’Reilly (52).

Westmeath: L Nicholson; J Casey, C Whitney, A Maguire; J Murtagh, A Curran, N Pierson; E Conlon, J Mitchell; C Geary, R Kelly, P Keegan; M Thornton, K Connell, S Cully. Subs: C Rigney for Keegan (half-time), D O’Connor for Conlon (half-time), C Leech for Casey (half-time), G Pierce for Geary (41), R Doonan for Murtagh (59).

Referee: David Fedigan (Louth).