Aaron Gillane returns to fold for Limerick in comfortable win

National Hurling League, Division 1A: Limerick 1-27 Westmeath 1-15

All-Ireland champions Limerick were never in any danger against a plucky Westmeath side in Mullingar yesterday afternoon.

The Lake County had the aid of a very useful wind in the first half, but they seldom threatened the Limerick rearguard. John Kiely fielded roughly half of his likely championship team and they dominated right from the first whistle.

They had three points on the board in the opening five minutes via Diarmaid Byrnes (a free), Tom Morrissey and Peter Casey. They led 0-4 to 0-1 when Conor Boylan found the net in the 12th minute after fine approach work by Casey.

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In the absence of injured All Star nominee Killian Doyle, Jack Gillen was on free-taking duty for Joe Fortune’s troops, but he only managed one successful strike from a number of scoreable placed balls in the first half. The home team had the gap down to six points (1-8 to 0-5) by the 25th minute, but the Liam MacCarthy Cup holders fired over six more points by the interval, including two each from Morrissey and the outstanding Donnacha Ó Dálaigh, to lead from 1-14 to 0-5 at half-time.

Fine goalkeeping by Noel Conaty kept Limerick out on a couple of occasions in the second half. Without having to overly exert themselves, Limerick kept the scoreboard ticking over, but they were dealt a blow just past the hour mark when Colin Coughlan was black-carded after a foul on Westmeath sub Eoin Keyes.

Lively sub Niall O’Brien superbly dispatched the resultant penalty past Jamie Power. This gave the home team a lift and they gave as good as they got in the closing stages. One of the biggest cheers of the afternoon came when Aaron Gillane was introduced in the 63rd minute and the Patrickswell star did not disappoint, scoring a delightful point near the end.

Limerick: J Power; F O’Connor, D Morrissey, B Nash; D Byrnes (0-2, one free, one ‘65′), R Connolly, C Coughlan; B Murphy (0-1), W O’Donoghue (0-1); T Morrissey (0-9, four frees), C O’Neill (0-2), C Boylan (1-0); D Ó Dálaigh (0-5), S Flanagan (0-2), P Casey (0-3). Subs: D O’Donovan for Murphy (blood, 31 to 39 mins), M Casey for D Morrissey (52 mins), O O’Reilly for Ó Dálaigh (52 mins), M Quinlan for Byrnes (56 mins), A Gillane (0-1) for Flanagan (63 mins), A O’Connor (0-1, free) for T Morrissey (69 mins).

Westmeath: N Conaty; D Egerton, T Doyle (0-1), C Shaw; A Craig, R Greville (0-1), J Galvin; S Clavin, S McGovern (0-1); J Boyle (0-1), C Doyle (0-1), K Regan (0-2); O McCabe, D Glennon, J Gillen (0-1, free). Subs: N O’Brien (1-6, 1-0 pen, five frees, one ‘65′) for McCabe (injured, 14 mins), J Bermingham for Clavin (half-time), E Keyes for Gillen (52 mins), G Greville for Craig (52 mins), D Clinton (0-1, lineball) for C Doyle (54 mins), M Cunningham for R Greville (blood, 60 to 62 mins).

Referee: C Cunning (Antrim).