Derry extend summer as they resist Westmeath comeback

Derry needed a 65th-minute goal from Emmett Bradley to edge past Westmeath in ideal conditions for football in Newry, the Division 1 football champions scraping into the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final after suffering three successive defeats in earlier matches.

In the final quarter, as Westmeath closed within a point, it looked like Mickey Harte’s charges could make an early exit from the championship, but they showed their steel to proceed to Monday’s draw live on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

Conor Glass opened the scoring with a converted ’45’ in the third minute, but the very lively Ronan O’Toole equalised some three minutes later at the end of a fine move by the underdogs.

Sam McCartan was wide from a Westmeath ‘45’, but O’Toole doubled his tally after a superb catch by Ray Connellan to nudge the Division 3 champions ahead in the 11th minute.

Derry, who had coughed up some soft goals in earlier matches, were almost caught out again on the quarter-hour mark, but Westmeath defender and captain Kevin Maguire was dispossessed at the crucial moment.

Lachlann Murray levelled the contest in the 18th minute, but impressive corner-back Jamie Gonoud quickly nudged Dessie Dolan’s men ahead by 0-03 to 0-02.

Eunan Mulholland and O’Toole (completing his hat-trick) exchanged points, as did Shane McGuigan (a close-range free) and Connellan at the end of a patient move.

However, defender Conor McCluskey, who had been very prominent from the start, scored a great goal in the 33rd minute, and Mulholland added a point in added-time, to leave Mickey Harte’s troops ahead by 1-05 to 0-05 at the interval.

Both sides added just a point apiece to their tallies in the opening ten minutes of the second half. James Dolan scored a terrific point for Westmeath in the 42nd minute, and McGuigan (who was kept scoreless from play courtesy of some tough and disciplined defending by the losers) doubled his tally from frees a few minutes later.

In the 49th minute, Glass did brilliantly to field the ball under his own crossbar from a ‘45’ taken by Wallace, and seconds later he pointed in style at the other end to put the Oak Leaf men ahead by 1-07 to 0-06.

Derry looked in command at this stage, but Westmeath – who only needed a draw to eliminate their more illustrious opponents – gave their outnumbered supporters every hope of a shock result when they rifled over three unanswered points between the 55th and 59th minutes, all scored by subs – one each from Robbie Forde, and the Smith brothers, Stephen and Jack.

However, up popped Bradley with five minutes of normal time remaining, after great work by Diarmuid Baker, to rifle the ball past Jason Daly for the game’s decisive goal. Westmeath went all out in search of late scores, but they were unable to breach the Ulster side’s’ defence, with McCartan missing their third ‘45’ deep into injury-time.

Derry: Odhrán Lynch; Conor McCluskey (1-00), Chrissy McKaigue, Diarmuid Baker; Ciaran McFaul, Eoin McEvoy, Donncha Gilmore; Conor Glass (0-02, ‘45’), Brendan Rogers; Ethan Doherty, Emmett Bradley (1-00), Paul Cassidy; Eunan Mulholland (0-02), Shane McGuigan (0-02f), Lachlan Murray (0-01).

Subs: Declan Cassidy for Murray (62), Cormac Murphy for Mulholland (66), Ruairi Forbes for Bradley (66), Shea Downey for Cassidy (70+1).

Westmeath: Jason Daly; Jamie Gonoud (0-01), Charlie Drumm, Kevin Maguire; James Dolan (0-01), Ronan Wallace, David Lynch; Ray Connellan (0-01), Andy McCormack; Jonathan Lynam, Ronan O’Toole (0-03), Sam McCartan; Luke Loughlin, John Heslin, Senan Baker.

Subs: Robbie Forde (0-01) for Lynam (50), Stephen Smith (0-01) for Loughlin (50), Jack Smith (0-01) for Baker (58), Shane Allen for Gonoud (58), Kieran Martin for Dolan (70+1).

Ref: Paul Faloon (Down).

Watch an All-Ireland Football Championship double-header, Armagh v Galway (1.45pm) and Dublin v Mayo (3.45pm) on Sunday on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1