Westmeath 1-18 Kildare 1-6: Westmeath advanced to meet Dublin in the quarter-final with second-half scores enabling them to overcome Kildare in Mullingar yesterday.
Scores were at a premium in the opening quarter of play as Westmeath led 0-4 to 0-2. Kildare rallied to draw level at 0-5 each in the 33rd minute, Tom Carew pointing a 50-metre free to equalise matters.
Oliver Devine quickly pointed Westmeath back in front, but Kildare struck for a goal in first-half injury time.
Joe Dempsey met the ball with a bat-down into the right corner of the Westmeath net to put Kildare 1-5 to 0-6 ahead at half-time, despite the dismissal of Adrian McAndrew in the 23rd minute.
Three quick points edged Westmeath 0-9 to 1-5 ahead with a little over six minutes of the second half played. Ciarán Divilly shot over a splendid point for Kildare to quickly restore parity.
But the handicap of being minus a player started to tell as Westmeath opened up a 0-13 to 1-6 lead midway through the second half.
Kildare played with great spirit in the closing quarter of the match but Westmeath continued to steadily add to their lead, clinching victory with a late goal from Jonathan Forbes.
WESTMEATH: M Briody; D Curley, B Murtagh, P Greville; D Gallagher, D McCormack (0-2), S McDonnell; R Whelan, B Connaughton; K Cosgrove, O Devine (0-2), A Mitchell (0-9); D McNicholas, J Shaw, B Kennedy (0-3). Subs: D Carty for McNicholas, J Forbes (1-2) for Cosgrove, C Murtagh for Carty, P Williams for Connaughton, N Flanagan, for Shaw.
KILDARE: C Leahy; S Crowe, D Laharte, B Maher; C Divilly (0-1), D Harney, R Hoban; C Buggy, J Brennan; J Dempsey (1-1), E Denieffe, S Joyce; A McAndrew, A Quinn (0-1), T Carew (0-3). Subs: B White for Joyce, P Reidy for Maher, A Flaherty for Crowe, C Boran for Denieffe.
Referee: J Guinan (Kilkenny).
Substitute Seán Arthur's goal sent Clare on their way to a 2-13 to 0-11 victory over Waterford in the Munster Junior Hurling Championship in Thurles yesterday. Arthur rounded his man to race through for the goal in the last quarter of the match.
Up to that point there was little between the sides as Clare led 0-7 to 0-5 at half-time - Arthur's goal put them 1-9 to 0-9 ahead. A goal from Eamon Taaffe in the 29th minute sealed their win.
SCORERS - Clare: E Taaffe (1-6), B Nugent (0-5), S Arthur (1-1)C Earlie (0-1). Waterford: P Kearney 0-7, D Howard (0-2), D Murphy (0-1), C Watt (0-1).
Referee: D Richardson (Limerick).
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