Joint-Westmeath ladies football manager Alan Mangan rushed back from Croke Park yesterday to help his club Castletown-Geoghegan to a shock SHC semi-final victory over champions Raharney in Mullingar.

The 2004 Leinster SFC medallist was on the sideline at GAA headquarters yesterday afternoon as his Westmeath side fought out a thrilling 2-5 to 0-11 draw with Cavan in the TG4 All-Ireland intermediate ladies final before dashing back to assist Castletown in their 2-15 to 0-14 win at Cusack Park, which had a 5.30pm throw-in. Although listed to start, Castletown boss Ray Gavin - who also managed the Westmeath minor hurlers this year - decided to keep the former Westmeath footballer in reserve before introducing him in the second half.

Mangan, who now has a county hurling final against Clonkill as well as the All-Ireland ladies final replay to look forward to in the next three weeks, is convinced the Lake County ladies can complete the job.

"We were poor today, we know we are an awful better than what we showed," he said after Cavan's late rally forced a replay.

"We can push on from here and we'll be celebrating with that silverware - wait 'til you see." Tweet

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