Offaly maintained their unbeaten run with this hard-earned win over battling Westmeath at Mullingar yesterday. The winners, ahead 1-3 to 0-5 at half-time, led from start to finish, but they had to resist a late Westmeath rally.

Offaly started impressively with a Mel Keenaghan goal and a Ciaran McManus point in the opening two minutes.

Des Dolan steadied Westmeath with a pointed free in the fifth minute. Then McManus and Westmeath's Joe Fallon exchanged points from frees.

John Ryan had Offaly's last point of the half in the 24th minute and two points from Dolan and one from Fallon reduced Offaly's lead to 1-3 to 0-5 at half-time.

Offaly reeled off three points to lead by 1-6 to 0-5 within 10 minutes of the restart. Late Westmeath points from Lar Gillivan and Ger Heavin kept interest alive until the end, but the excellent Offaly backs denied Westmeath any chance of a match-winning goal.

Offaly: P Kelly; C Daly, B Malone, J Brady; J Kilmurray, S Grennan, F Cullen; J Grennan (0-1), R Mooney; C Quinn (0-1), J Ryan (0-2), C McManus (0-2); P Kellaghan (0-1), M Keenaghan (1-0), V Claffey. Subs: R Malone for R Mooney (48 mins), D Foley for C Daly (60 mins), B Mooney for M Keenaghan (62 mins), D Connolly for C Quinn (63 mins).

Westmeath: A Lennon; K McKinley, D Mitchell, F Murray; D Healy, A Canning, D Gavin; R O'Connell, D O'Shaughnessy; A Corcoran, P Conway, S Deering; J Fallon (0-2), D Dolan (0-3), D Heavin (0-1). Subs: G Heavin (0-1) for R O'Connell (46 mins), M Staunton for S Deering (51 mins), L Gillivan (0-1) for A Corcoran (51 mins).

Referee: E Whelan (Laois).