Croke Park yesterday, the delayed Division 11 National League decider but Westmeath won the "Puc Fada". Easily the score of the match was struck by Westmeath's top scorer Andrew Mitchell, a 100 yards plus wind assisted delivery for a point at the Canal end.

But Kerry had the key score snatchers in right corner forward Michael Slattery, who struck a massive 1-10, a goal and six points from frees and John Mike Dooley.

Slattery and Dooley set Kerry on their way midway through the first half when adding on a goal (Dooley) and a point within a 30 second spell.

This flurry moved Kerry away from a parity situation to lead by 1-5 to 0-4 and they went ahead to snatch a 2-8 to 0-5 advantage by half time. a number of changes at half time made Westmeath a better looking side on the restart and they added three rapi d points inside as many minutes but, again Dooley stepped in to rattle the net and keep Kerry on course.

KERRY: J Healy ; C Cronin, C Flaherty, HJ Twomey; J McCarthy, M Lucid, WJ Leen; P O'Rourke, I Brick; Pβdraig Cronin (0-1), C Boyle, S Brick (0-2); M Slattery (1-10, 1-6 frees), B O'Mahony 0-1), J M Dooley (3-0). Substitutes: Pat Cronin for Padraig Cronin 47 min; Pβdraig for Pat Cronin 49 mins; J Wharton for S Brick 63 mins; Pat Cronin for Boyle 51 mins.

WESTMEATH: B Conaty; M Williams, B Murtagh, B Williams; D Gallaher, C Murtagh, N Gavin; D McCormack, A Devine; V Bateman (0-1), D Devine (1-0), R Galvin; J Shaw (1-0), A Mitchell (0-7, 0-6 frees), B Kennedy (1-1). Substitutes: G Briody (0-1) for N Gavin 31 mins; P Galvin for M Williams 34 mins; D Devine for P Galvin 55 mins; A Mangan for A Devine 62 mins.