Round-up: Westmeath and Offaly set to clash in O'Byrne Cup semi-final

Ciarán Downey, Louth, and Kevin O’ Sullivan, Westmeath, in Dioralyte O'Byrne Cup action. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Dioralyte O'Byrne Cup Quarter-Finals

Offaly 2-13 Meath 0-15

Westmeath 2-15 Louth 0-15

Dioralyte O’Byrne Shield Quarter-Final

Carlow 1-13 Wexford 0-13

Kildare and Dublin had already secured automatic passage to the last four of the O’Byrne Cup and will meet on Saturday evening in Newbridge, and it will be another local derby in the other semi-final after Offaly and Westmeath successfully secured home wins against Meath and Louth respectively this evening.

Just three Meath players that featured in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Donegal - Billy Hogan, Bryan Menton and James McEntee – started for the Royals tonight in Gracefield while Offaly went with a larger spread of familiar names, which made the difference in an enjoyable and open contest at the home of the first ever Leinster club football champions.

Cormac Egan, Keith O’Neill and Lee Pearson were among the established names that performed well for the Faithful County, but it was Jordan Hayes, deployed as a centre back here, who really took control of the game in the opening 30 minutes to put the midlanders into the driving seat.

Hayes drove out of defence with power and authority, slamming in a sensational goal and firing another two-pointer over the bar as he racked up his full tally of 1-4 in the opening half. Cormac Egan added the second goal with a trademark run and finish while there were other opportunities that didn’t quite land for Offaly, with Eoin Sawyer not able to finish off another slick move.

Diarmuid Moriarty and Niall Finnerty hit the target with some nice scores for Meath in the opening half, but it was in the 10 minutes after half-time when the Royals were at their best, dominating the Offaly kickout and firing over 0-6 unanswered, two singles and two doubles.

Daithí McGowan and Oisín Martin were on target from range, but after that Meath’s accuracy dipped, in part due to missing good chances and in part due to poor shot selection.

Skerries Harps player Ciarán Murphy has been an interesting and notable addition to the Offaly panel this year and he brought his tally to three points with two second half scores as Offaly advanced to the last four without hitting the high notes for any consistent length of the time in the second half.

In Mullingar, it was a similar story in that two first half goals proved crucial in a midland team knocking over visitors from the east. Brian Guerin and Brandon Kelly found the net for Westmeath against Louth but Ryan Burns hit a two-pointer to leave just three in it at half-time, and it only got more competitive from there at St. Loman’s GAA club.

Burns went on to finish the night with 0-8 and Dylan McKeown added 0-4 for the Wee County who were back to within a point early in the final quarter.

Mark McHugh’s side had a much better spread of scorers throughout however (eight in total) and offered a much bigger threat from open play, as opposed to Louth who struck 0-10 from placed balls.

Kevin O’Sullivan, Tom Molloy (2p), Robbie Forde and Luke Loughlin completely the scoring to leave it 2-15 to 0-15 at the long whistle.

In the O’Byrne Shield, Wexford led Carlow by two at half-time but Colm Hulton’s goal saw the home side take the lead and eventually pick up a 1-13 to 0-13 win by the final whistle in Tullow, Paddy Doyle and Paddy McDonnell kicking the last two points for Carlow.