Senior hurlers record Walsh Cup victory over Westmeath

Sun, 15th December 2019

WALSH CUP

DUBLIN 1-22 WESTMEATH 0-17

Dublin opened their Walsh Cup campaign with a comfortable eight-point victory over Westmeath in Cusack Park, Mullingar on Sunday.

The Dubs started slowly and trailed 0-2 to 0-5 inside the opening ten minutes, with Niall Mitchell and the impressive Eoin Price both hitting 0-2, but soon got into their stride with Lorcan McMullan, making his Dublin debut, doing well at centrefield.

Two Oisín O’Rorke frees and a point from play from Donal Burke brought the sides level before Aidan Mellett grabbed the game’s only goal in the 15 minute following some good interplay between Oisín O'Rorke, Lorcan McMullan and Ronan Hayes for Ballyboden St Enda's Mellett to find the net.

Dublin struck the next four points with Mark Schutte, Davy Keogh, Loran McMullan and the influential Donal Burke all on target, making it 1-7 without reply, to open up a 1-9 to 0-5 advantage.

The Dubs put in a strong finish to the opening half with further scores from Oisín O’Rorke (two, one free), Donal Burke (two, one free) and two from Loran McMullan to lead 1-15 to 0-9 at the interval.

Dublin’s cause were made easier in the second period when Westmeath’s Joey Boyle was dismissed (second yellow card) in the 53^rd minute as the game slowed to its conclusion.

SCORERS – Dublin: D Burke 0-8 (0-3f), O O’Rorke 0-5 (0-4f), A Mellett 1-1, L McMullan 0-3, D Keogh 0-2, M Schutte 0-2, A O’Neill 0-1. Westmeath: E Price 0-7, D McNicholas 0-4 (0-2f), D Clinton 0-3 (0-3f), N Mitchell 0-2, L Varley 0-1.

DUBLIN: J Treacy; J Madden, P Smyth, T Connolly; P Crummey, D Gray, J Malone; D Keogh, L McMullan; F Whitely, M Schutte, D Burke; A Mellett, R Hayes, O O’Rorke.Subs: A O’Neill for O’Rorke (31), S Brennan for Treacy (ht), L Corcoran for Crummey (58), E O’Donnell for Keogh (60), Crummey for Mellett (63),

WESTMEATH: A McHugh; A Cox, T Doyle, A Ennis; S Clavin, A Craig, G Greville; L Varley, E Price; J Boyle, D O’Reilly, R Greville; N Mitchell, D Clinton, J Galvin. Subs: A Clarke for Clavin (25), D McNicholas for O’Reilly (ht), J Birmingham for Craig (ht), J Gilligan for Galvin (42), S McGovern for Clinton (52), C Doyle for R Greville (58), B Doyle for Varley (59).

REF: G Quilty (Kilkenny).