St Loman's manager Luke Dempsey admits that their win over local rivals Mullingar Shamrocks in the Westmeath SFC semi-final was not pretty.

The blue and whites had seven points to spare over their fierce rivals as goals in each half by county star John Heslin helped propel them to victory.

Unfortunately, the game never lived up to its expectations, but Dempsey stressed to the Westmeath Examiner that semi-finals are all about winning.

"I'm delighted, but semi-finals are notorious for producing disappointing games," said Dempsey. Players know the prize is the ultimate one and there is that fear of losing.

"Also it was a local derby, I had a few of them in Kildare in recent years. You could see that big time in the first half, especially with Mullingar Shamrocks' early attacks, they could have been 1-03 to 0-00 ahead.

"We are counting our blessings that they hadn't got their shooting boots on. Then, against the run of play, we got a goal and that just kept us in it."

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