Louth substitute Daniel O'Connor's injury-time goal sank Westmeath at Navan, 2-9 to 0-14.

The Lake men seemed to have done enough after staging a brilliant revival upon the restart, knocking over six points in succession either side of the break, but O'Connor dramatically hit the decisive score five minutes into added time.

The victors led by 1-6 to 0-7 at the break, with the midlanders hitting nine first-half wides.

Ronan Carroll's 21st-minute goal separated the sides at half time, with Derek Crilly - after his goalbound effort was blocked - and Paul Sharry trading the last two scores of the opening period.

These two teams proved themselves during the league, when both of them defied the critics to remain in Division Two, but today at Pairc Tailteann was where the year would start in earnest, with one of them going on to a glamorous clash with defending provincial and All-Ireland champions Dublin at Croke Park while the losers would crash into the Qualifiers.

It was a lottery in the end and it was the Wee County who bought the winning ticket...

Both sides started as selected during the week and a large crowd flocked into the neutral venue for what promised to be an intriguing match…

Midfielder John Heslin's free opened the scoring for the Lake men. Former Aussie Rules prodigy Heslin was the best player on view early on, registering three times as the underdogs moved 0-4 to 0-2 ahead, with Ger Egan also on target.

Darren Clarke had hit both the Wee County's opening scores and Derek Crilly reduced the gap to one. Mark Brennan scuffed his shot when he had a goal chance for the Reds and James Dolan had a shot saved by Neil Gallagher at the other end before the impressive Ronan Carroll drew the Wee County level.

Wing back Ray Finnegan had Louth in front for the first time and Kieran Martin levelled before midfielder Carroll showed great composure and skill before blasting the ball to the net to make it 1-5 to 0-5.

With two of the last three points of the half, Pat Flanagan's men stayed very much in touch at the turnaround, trailing by two…

The Maroons hit the ground running upon the restart and were totally dominant as they slotted over five consecutive scores to move ahead, 0-12 to 1-6.

Sharry (45), Heslin, Paul Bannon, David Glennon and Dolan got those scores as the match was totally transformed.

Clarke - with his third point - replied to leave it all to play for with two points in it and 15 minutes left and the same player closed the gap to one point, 0-12 to 1-8, before there was a long hold-up due to a serious-looking injury to Westmeath's David Glennon.

Westmeath moved two ahead again but there would be eight minutes of added time…

In a thrilling denouement, Westmeath substitute Callum McCormack rattled the crossbar before knocking over a point. Carroll and Heslin traded points and the St Marys clubman then created the clinching score...

... as, five minutes into injury time, the Wee County pounced through O'Connor for the winning goal to break Westmeath hearts.

Louth - N Gallagher; P Rath, L Shevlin, G Hoey; R Finnegan (0-1), J Carr, D Byrne; P Keenan, R Carroll (1-2); D Crilly (0-2), M Brennan, A Reid; D Maguire, J McEneaney, D Clarke (0-4). Subs: A McDonnell for Maguire, D O'Connor (1-0) for Brennan, R Greene for Shevlin, C Rafferty for Byrne, JP Rooney for Crilly.

Westmeath - G Connaughton; M Curley, J Gaffey, K Maguire; D Harte, P Sharry (0-2), D McDermott (0-1); J Heslin (0-5), P Bannon (0-1); K Martin (0-1), G Egan (0-1), J Dolan (0-1); Denis Glennon, David Glennon (0-1), M Ennis. Subs: C McCormack (0-1) for Ennis, R Foley for David Glennon, A Giles for McDermott.

Ref - M Higgins (Fermanagh). Tweet

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