Meath left pale and haunted after Westmeath bury ghost

It was long after the final whistle, maybe half an hour. The Dublin and Kildare teams were out on the pitch, shuttling through the last of their warm-ups for the second game. When out of the tunnel under the Cusack Stand came four Westmeath players, still in their jerseys, walking in socks. Brothers Ray and John Connellan, John Egan and unused sub John Stapleton, clubmen from Athlone. They linked arms for a photo to record it for posterity, the day Meath were beaten.

Let the records show that after 80 years of trying and at the 24th attempt, Westmeath finally beat Meath. A game of bewildering irrationality saw Tom Cribbin’s side come from 10 points down just short of half-time to float out of Croke Park at the end, victorious to the tune of 3-19 to 2-18. The thread of glorious lunacy that ran through the game extended to Meath losing not just that 10-point lead but two players to black cards and goalkeeper Paddy O’Rourke to a late red.

Dire calamity

This was a dire calamity for Meath but Westmeath won’t care. They sourced a stunning 2-3 in

Kieran Martin

, their converted centre-back/sweeper who had spent the opening half looking thoroughly lost in his role at the back. The majestic

John Heslin

ended the day with 1-10 against his name, including the goal that brought the walls tumbling down as the game entered injury-time.

“It’s a miracle for the lads there,” said Cribbin. “At the start of the year, I saw something special in that group of lads. We knew they have fierce character and getting them to gel as a unit was the whole secret to making it happen.

“We were a bit at sea in the first half. No matter what way you were going to approach it, there was always going to be a huge amount of pressure on us. Meath’s game plan was very, very good.

“It took us a while to counteract it once we got more mobility in the middle of the pitch. The young lads starting getting better and better, and more belief in themselves. The way we finished the match last week, scoring 1-9, and the way we had been getting goals in a lot of our games – we just had that belief. So that’s the way we approached it.”

For Meath, this was unforgivable. It is hard to remember a team contriving to pass up a place in a provincial final with such hapless abandon. They were out the gap here after half an hour, sitting on a 2-12 to 1-5 lead that didn’t even fully reflect their dominance. But as an exercise in finding a way to lose, this can’t be matched. Westmeath outscored them 2-8 to 0-1 over the closing 20 minutes, as if history meant nothing.

"We came up focused on reaching a Leinster final, a fourth Leinster final in a row," said Mick O'Dowd. "In the first half we played some really good football but we probably weren't clinical enough. Full credit to Westmeath – in the second half, they never gave up. We went ahead in the second half – we were 10 up at one stage – but we kept leaving the door open and credit to them for taking their opportunity.

Commanding position

“To be in such a commanding position, playing such good football – I don’t know it that was to do with the overall maturity of the team. Meath are a young team, but Westmeath played with an abandon in the second half and a couple of guys got key scores for them.”

Westmeath move on to only the fourth Leinster final in their history, where they will meet Dublin. Jim Gavin's side ran up a 5-18 to 0-14 win over Kildare that was every bit as lacking in mystery as it sounds. Bernard Brogan and Diarmuid Connolly helped themselves to 2-3 apiece, Ciarán Kilkenny, Dean Rock and Alan Brogan padded out their CVs as well.

"They're a very driven bunch," said Jim Gavin.

“They wear that [favourites] tag very, very lightly. They’re very ambitious and understand that it’s all about the next game. There are no guarantees in this sport and they just have to work hard and put themselves in a position to win games.”

They will presumably make short work of Westmeath in the final but sitting in Croke Park yesterday, that seemed unimportant.

The game is about glory, however brief your glimpse of it might be. No harm for us all to be reminded once in a while.