Westmeath produced an unbelievable recovery to beat Meath by 3-19 to 2-18 at Croke Park and progress to the Leinster final.

Extraordinarily, trailing by nine points with 20 minutes left, Tom Cribbin's charges outscored their opponents by 2-8 to 0-1 from the 50th minute onwards.

Kieran Martin registered 2-3 for the winners, while John Heslin hit an amazing 1-9 as the midlanders came from ten points down towards the end of the first half - and nine adrift with 50 minutes played - to record their first-ever championship victory over Meath.

The losers looked to be in complete control when they had the inspirational Graham Reilly black-carded on 47 minutes, with the scoreboard reading 2-14 to 1-11. Meath got the next three points. However, during the following 20 minutes, Westmeath produced football from the heavens.

A brace of Bryan McMahon goals inside a blistering 60-second spell was instrumental in Meath taking a commanding eight-point interval advantage, 2-12 to 1-7. The Royals were full value for that lead as they had completely dominated the opening 35 minutes with all but one of their scores coming from open play and a dynamic full-forward line of McMahon, Eamonn Wallace and Stephen Bray contributing 2-7 of their first-half total.

There were 23 seconds on the clock when Bray clinically despatched a trademark shot on the turn straight over the bar to give the Royal County the lead. In the second minute, Reilly slotted a nice score at the end of a sweeping team move - a super start from Mick O'Dowd's men, with Wallace - a late addition to the Meath starting XV in place of Mickey Newman - instrumental in both of those early scores.

No.14 Heslin opened the Lake County's account with a beautiful strike off the outside of his right foot between the Hill 16 posts but McMahon immediately replied with another lovely Meath score and Ratoath clubmate Wallace was on hand to make it four points to one with a precise left-footed strike on six minutes.

Tom Cribbin's men were slow to settle, making a number of basic errors during the opening exchanges, and Reilly punished them with a fifth Meath point after McMahon had palmed a presentable goal-scoring opportunity off the outside of the post and wide. After an error-strewn passage of play, Bray contemptuously smashed over the winners' next score with his left boot. That score assured Meath of a 0-6 to 0-1 advantage at the midway stage in the first half.

On briefly as a blood substitute, Newman had a goal chance smothered by Darren Quinn, Bray and McMahon posted further Meath wides either side of that save. At the other end, Ray Connellan's second wide of the game didn't even threaten the uprights.

Wing back Bryan Menton and Wallace had the freedom of Croke Park to slot over the next two Meath points before Heslin replied with a super free from the 45-metre line on the right wing. The Lake County hadn't even been in the game up to that juncture but they roared momentarily back into contention in the 24th minute when No.6 Kieran Martin took a pass from Heslin and drilled a left-footed finish to Paddy O'Rourke's right to bulge the onion bag: 0-8 to 1-2. Game on? Not yet.

Wallace and Shane Dempsey traded points before McMahon seemingly put the midlanders to the sword with a clinical double-whammy: the Ratoath attacker smashed two stinging drives to the roof of Darren Quinn's net in the 27th and 28th minutes to surely put the match out of Westmeath's reach, 2-9 to 1-3. A nervy Andrew Tormey free went over the bar off the top of the crossbar to make it a ten-point match after half an hour.

Heslin and Wallace swapped scores as did Reilly and Martin before a converted Heslin free deep into stoppage time closed the first-half scoring.

Substitute John Connellan scooped over two fine Westmeath points - one off each foot - in the first two minutes after the restart; Meath came back with points from Reilly and Tormey (free), with Heslin nailing a Westmeath free in between. In the 45th minute, midfielder Paul Sharry chipped over a '45' to leave the Lake County within six, 2-14 to 1-11.

Reilly was black-carded for a trip with 23 minutes left but his replacement Newman immediately steadied the ship with a super strike from distance and McMahon was on hand to stretch the gap to eight. Bray hammered over the 17th Meath point with 15 minutes gone in the second half.

Cue the most remarkable comeback of the year...

Less than a minute later, Martin took a pass from substitute Denis Glennon and thumped a stinging drive past O'Rourke for his second goal: 2-17 to 2-11.

Heslin then dropped over a point off his left to leave five between the teams with 18 minutes left to play. The momentum was very much with the men in maroon as Sharry chipped over his second '45' to make it a four-point match on 54 minutes. Westmeath were now completely on top and Ray Connellan finally booted over his opening point on 57 minutes to reduce the arrears to three, 2-17 to 2-14.

Heslin worked a short free to close the gap to two with eleven minutes left. Menton got forward and went to ground to win Meath a much-needed free and Newman chipped the ball over the bar at the Hill 16 end to give his side some respite: 2-18 to 2-15 with nine minutes left. Heslin arrowed over another Westmeath free and then struck the left upright with an effort from play, while Meath corner back Donnacha Tobin was black-carded for the foul that gave away that free.

With six minutes left, Heslin landed a free from a central position to - remarkably - make it a one-point match, 2-18 to 2-17. Newman fired a goal chance straight at Quinn and, at the other end, Martin cut inside brilliantly to flick over the equalising point with his right hand. Westmeath had outscored their neightbours by 1-7 to 0-1 during a sizzling 15-minute spell!

On 69 minutes, it was deja-vu as Martin again cut in along the end line to flick the lead point between the posts: 2-19 to 2-18 to Westmeath! Astonishingly, in the first of two added minutes, after Meath had passed over on a great chance to equalise, Heslin planted the ball in the bottom right corner of the net: 3-19 to 2-18.

The Royals were rattled and their goalkeeper O'Rourke received a straight red card for following through on Martin. That was the final act of an unforgettable match as Westmeath progressed to the 2015 Leinster SFC final, where they will face either Dublin or Kildare.

Westmeath - D Quinn; K Daly, K Maguire, J Gilligan; J Dolan, K Martin (2-3), P Holloway; P Sharry (0-2'45), D Daly; R Connellan (0-1), G Egan, D Corroon; L Smyth, J Heslin (1-9, 0-5f), S Dempsey (0-2). Subs: J Connellan (0-2) for D Daly, J Gonoud for K Daly, D Lynch for L Smyth, D Glennon for S Dempsey, P Greville for J Gilligan, J Egan for D Corroon.

Meath - P O'Rourke; J McEntee, C McGill, D Tobin; B Menton (0-1), D Keogan, M Burke; H Rooney, K Reilly; G Reilly (0-4), P Harnan, A Tormey (0-2f); E Wallace (0-4), S Bray (0-3), B McMahon (2-2). Subs: A Flanagan for H Rooney, D Dalton for M Burke, M Newman (0-2, 1f) for G Reilly (BC), B Power for A Tormey, J Wallace for D Tobin (BC), S Tobin for K Reilly, D Carroll for J McEntee.

Referee - C Lane.

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