Westmeath came away from Enniscorthy tonight with a hard-fought 1-5 to 0-7 victory over Wexford.

In a game played in dreadful conditions, the hosts were unable to build upon their superb victory over Longford seven days ago and were chasing the game from start to finish. They drew level on three occasions in the second half but each time the visitors were able to get their noses back in front.

Robert Hickey, Jack Quinn and Daire Conway supplied Westmeath's only three scores of the second period as atrocious conditions made quality football impossible.

Having opened the scoring, corner forward Paddy Fagan punched home the only goal of the game in the eleventh minute and that major meant that Emmet McDonnell's side carried a narrow advantage into the interval, 1-2 to 0-3, with Donal Shanley the only Wexford player on target before the break. Darren Giles (free) his the Lake lads' second first-half point.

David Power's men clipped over the first two points after the restart (Shanley bringing his tally to 0-5) to draw level but - despite playing into the wind - the midlanders were never behind and wing back Conway knocked over a last-minute point in response to a Jamie Carty effort to seal a semi-final date with Kildare, who got the better of Offaly tonight.

Westmeath - K Fagan; R Wallace, I Ilunga, B Sayeh; G Murray, A McCormack, D Conway (0-1); A McGivney, S Duncan; S Corcoran, R Cunningham, T Watts; D Giles (0-1f), N Mitchell, P Fagan (1-1). Subs: R O'Toole for A McGivney, J Quinn (0-1) for N Mitchell, R Hickey (0-1) for S Corcoran.

Wexford - B Turner; D Barden (0-1), J Rossiter, R Vallejo; S Doyle, N Rossiter, S Donohoe; N Hughes, T Byrne; E Nolan, I Carty, B Power; D Shanley (0-5, 4f), E Roche, S Ryan. Subs: J Carty (0-1) for E Roche, T Bowler for T Byrne, J Stafford for B Power.

Referee - D Moore.

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