Westmeath's poor recent record in under 21 football continued last year when they were overwhelmed by Laois in the second half of their Leinster semi-final clash at Portlaoise. Richie O'Donoghue's charges had comfortably accounted for Wexford in the previous round, but the O'Moore County proved to be a totally different proposition. Westmeath's heroics at under 21 level in 1999 and 2000 are but a distant memory after they were decisively beaten by a crack Laois team in the Leinster championship semi-final last March. While Westmeath have generally had the upper hand on Laois since the famous Leinster minor final trilogy of 1995, there was no doubting the O'Moore County's superiority on this occasion, especially when they moved up the gears in the second half. Westmeath were just a point adrift at the interval, 0-7 to 1-5, but had no answer to the home side's second half onslaught which propelled them to a 2-12 to 0-8 victory. "We needed everything going right for us and things didn't at the start of the second half. But we are going out of here with no complaints - they were better than us," Westmeath manager Richie O'Donoghue admitted. "We went to sleep for 10 minutes in the middle of the first half and they got about 1-3. We switched off and then we got back on, but we needed everything we could get. We just needed to get a score after half-time and pick it up and go at them. We're very down but, at the same time, we hold our hands up, they were better than us." Having won the All-Ireland minor title in 2003 - hammering Westmeath 3-10 to 0-4 en route - Laois carried considerable pedigree into the game, something which wasn't lost on O'Donoghue. "That team at minor level was hockeyed, so give our lads credit, they made good progress and they're battlers. "There are a lot of good lads with good character, and I'd expect them to help out the seniors in the near future. Some of them are good enough to step up, definitely," he said. In contrast to 2005 when he had limited time to prepare the team due to his late appointment as manager, O'Donoghue was able to put in a lot more work with last year's squad. But injuries to senior players Brendan Nannery and David Glennon greatly diminished the Lake County's chances of progressing to the Leinster final. As in previous years, Westmeath used the Hastings Cup to prepare for the Leinster championship. They lost their first two games to Longford and Cavan before recovering to register a comfortable victory over Roscommon. A week later, Westmeath renewed their rivalry with the Connacht side in the Shield final and, in a much closer game, emerged as 1-8 to 0-7 winners. Westmeath held a slender 0-4 to 0-3 lead at the break, but Roscommon did have an early penalty saved by David Bryan and missed another goal chance in the 20th minute. Roscommon started the second half well and took the lead before three points from Joe Clarke, Paul Martin and Darren Moore edged the Lake County back in front. A 47th minute goal from Gavin Hoey effectively ended the game as a contest, although Roscommon did finish the stronger with efforts from Aiden Dooley and Mark Shine. For the second year in-a-row, Westmeath travelled to Wexford for their opening game in the Leinster championship. And as in 2005, the midlanders ran out easy winners with Jeffrey Farrell and Fiachra Spellman scoring the goals in a 2-10 to 1-2 victory. Wexford had the benefit of a facile 5-17 to 0-1 win over Kilkenny in the first round, but from an early stage it was clear that result carried no merit and, in a poor contest at Enniscorthy, the visitors had things very much their own way. Despite taking the field without regular centre back Brendan Nannery, who tore his hamstring while playing for the county seniors against Meath in the O'Byrne Cup, Westmeath took control from the start, although it was only in the closing stages of the first half that they made their dominance count on the scoreboard. After David Glennon scored an early free, Westmeath had to wait 20 minutes for their second point to arrive via Jeffrey Farrell. Glennon made it 0-3 to no score before Farrell scored a fine goal after Graham Dillon's initial shot had been kept out. In stoppage-time, Joe Clarke and PJ Banville exchanged frees to leave Westmeath 1-4 to 0-1 ahead at the break. Further points from Glennon and Farrell had extended Westmeath's lead on the restart before Fiachra Spellman grabbed a second goal in the 34th minute to ease the visiting team into a 2-6 to 0-1 lead. By the 11th minute of the half, Westmeath were 13 points to the good thanks to scores from Spellman and Martin. Wexford pulled back a goal three minutes later through Peter Atkinson, but their comeback hopes were quickly ended when points from Clarke and Glennon restored Westmeath's 12-point cushion and their margin of victory was 11 in the end. The prize for beating Wexford was a difficult trip to O'Moore Park to face championship favourites Laois. Brendan Nannery was again absent, while star forward David Glennon only lasted until half-time, having succumbed to a hamstring injury he also sustained while playing for the seniors. The game was played in a constant downpour which made conditions extremely difficult for both teams. Despite this, Westmeath made a great start when Gavin Hoey scored a delightful point in the second minute. However, Stradbally's Colm Kelly levelled from a free and Laois went in front in the eighth minute when Chris Bergin fired over. Moments later, Richie O'Donoghue's side had a glorious goal chance when David Glennon, Jeffrey Farrell and Ronan Foley were involved in a sweeping attack, but Foley's shot was deflected out for a '45'. Westmeath continued to pile on the pressure and regained the lead courtesy of successful frees from Joe Clarke and Paul Martin. The O'Moore County hit back with a brace of scores from wing back Peter O'Leary and Colm Kelly before they made a decisive breakthrough in the 19th minute when Kelly drilled a low shot past David Bryan for the opening goal. The Stradbally ace followed that with a pointed free and suddenly Laois were 1-5 to 0-3 ahead. However, Westmeath fought back defiantly in the final nine minutes of the half and four points from the unerring Paul Martin (three frees) left them just a point adrift at the break, 1-5 to 0-7. Laois upped the ante in the second half, so much so that Westmeath could only add one point to their half-time tally as they cracked under incessant pressure from the home side. Attacking wing back O'Leary rattled the crossbar and Kelly screwed a penalty wide before Michael John Tierney finally beat David Bryan to ease the O'Moore County into a 2-7 to 0-7 lead. It spelled the end of the road for Westmeath, who missed two easy frees before Martin registered their only score of the half. With their confidence up, a rampant Laois added five more points per Peter McNulty, Tierney, Craig Rogers and Kelly (two) to seal an emphatic victory. Westmeath's misery was complete when corner back Trevor John Gonoud was sent off on a second yellow card three minutes from the end. As Richie O'Donoghue pointed out afterwards, 11 of last year's team will be eligible for the grade again in 2007. And if they can learn from their 2006 experience, they should be a force to be reckoned with. The Westmeath team which lost to Laois in the Leinster under 21 football championship semi-final was: David Bryan; Jason Lynch, Francis Boyle, Trevor John Gonoud; Greg Crowley, Adrian Kelly, Michael Curley; Jeffrey Farrell, David Duffy; Ronan Foley, Joe Clarke, Graham Dillon (captain); Paul Martin, Gavin Hoey, David Glennon. Subs used: Fiachra Spellman, Ronan Moran, Conor Jordan and Paul Greville. Tweet

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