Westmeath led by eight points at half-time in Navan
It was 0-9 to 0-4 for the Lake County men at the end of normal time, and despite just one minute being added on, it was still enough for the lively Ronan O’Toole to coolly slide the ball past Califf at the end of a great move for a tonic goal and an eight-point lead at the interval.
However, Louth were a transformed outfit after belatedly returning to the fray, with both half-time subs Liam Jackson and Craig Lennon having a big influence on proceedings. Despite limited possession, the midlanders still led against a wasteful Wee County team by 1-10 to 0-7 after 46 minutes. The game then turned when a point attempt by Heslin came back off the woodwork and, moments later, Ryan Burns was fouled inside the large parallelogram at the other end.
Mickey Harte’s men began to play with much more confidence and they were on level terms in the 50th minute when Jackson rifled the ball past Daly. Heslin nudged Westmeath ahead from a free, but their opponents finished by far the stronger as Westmeath began to make unforced errors. Two unanswered points from Conor Early had Louth ahead for the first time in the 70th minute. An injury-time free by Mulroy copper-fastened their deserved place in a Croke Park semi-final double-header next Sunday.J Califf; D Corcoran, P Lynch, D McKenny ; C Murphy, N Sharkey , L Grey; T Durnin, C Early ; C McKeever, C Downey, C Grimes ; D McConnon, S Mulroy , R Burns.
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