Offaly 0-16 Westmeath 0-11
Offaly continued their encouraging early season form with a deserved win over Westmeath in the O'Byrne Cup semi-final at O'Connor Park.
It was another solid, hard working display by Offaly, who proved too strong for an understrength Westmeath side.
It was nip and tuck in the first half and the sides were level on six occasions as Offaly got the closing three points of the half to lead by 0-8 to 0-7 at half time.
The home side upped the tempo in the second half and soon had daylight between the sides. They had 0-13 on the board before Westmeath got the first of their four second half points in the 52nd minute and they were able to close it out comfortably enough from there.
Offaly: P Dunican (0-1, 0-1f); D Dempsey, E Rigney, N Darby; E Carroll, S Nally, J Hayes (0-2); C Mangan (0-1), M Brazil; C McNamee, R McNamee (0-1), J Dempsey; C Johnson (0-1), B Allen (0-8, 0-8f), A Sullivan. Subs: C Donohue for J Dempsey (H/T), R McEvoy for C McNamee (48m), N Darby for Nally (53), C Farrell (0-2, 0-1f) for Sullivan (56), A Leavy for Brazil (61), C Donnelly for R McNamee (66).
Westmeath: J Daly; C Slevin, K Maguire, B Sayeh; K Daly, R Wallace, J Dolan; D Corroon, N Mulligan; N O'Reilly, Conor McCormack (0-2, 0-1f), A McGivney; D Lynch, L Dolan (0-2), Callum McCormack (0-5, 0-3f). Subs: C Coughlan for Mulligan, A Neary (0-1) for O'Reilly (both H/T), A Stone for Conor McCormack (57m), L Loughlin (0-1, f) for Dolan (60), E Carberry for Daly (65), C Dillon for McGivney (68), S Connolly for Slevin (70), N Scally for Callum McCormack (73).
Referee: D Fedigan (Louth).
