Tomas O Flatharta’s Westmeath sent out an early warning in the Leinster under 21 football championship at Tullamore on Saturday when they romped to an 11-point victory over arch-rivals Offaly.

Westmeath.0-19
Offaly....0-8

Despite the heavy conditions, the Lake County racked up 19 points with former senior John Connellan accounting for almost half of their tally. The Athlone man gave a virtuoso display, scoring 0-5 from play and a further 0-3 from frees, while Thomas McDaniel and midfielder Niall Kilcoyne - son of former All-Star hurler David - scored 0-3 each.

The visitors had raced into a 0-7 to 0-0 lead before two Ken Casey frees late in the first half gave Offaly a glimmer of hope. But senior player McDaniel had the final say to send Westmeath into the break leading 0-8 to 0-2.

The Lake County reeled off four unanswered points at the start of the second half before an Offaly rally brought them to within six points, 0-7 to 0-13. But Westmeath moved up the gears again to finish strongly and set up a quarter-final meeting with Kilkenny at the end of the month.

Westmeath - D Quinn; F Reilly, K Gavin, S Moorehead; J Dolan, A Whitney 0-1, T Warburton; A Browne, N Kilcoyne 0-3; C Lynam 0-2, C Reilly 0-1, S Tone; B Kelly, T McDaniel 0-3, J Connellan 0-8. Subs: J Durkan for Tone, C McCormack for McDaniel, N Bannon 0-1 for Kilcoyne.

Offaly - B Quinlan; D Murphy, J Knight, S Pender; D Ryan, B Geraghty, P Mitchell; C Egan, R Brady, G O’Connell, N Dunne, K Duffy; R Allen, B Connor, K Casey 0-5. Subs: L Dunning for Knight, W Mulhall 0-3 for Brady, A Sullivan for O’Connell, N Geraghty for C Egan, E Marsden for Duffy.

Ref - J Curley (Meath).