By Paul O’Donovan
Last Saturday evening’s game in Páirc Esler, Newry was certainly a game of two halves. Westmeath played some wonderful football in the first-half and led by 0-8 to 0-3 at half-time and went on to lead by 0-10 to 0-3 in the second-half, before Down came storming back in the last 20 minutes.
There is no doubt that a 54th minute penalty awarded to Down and converted by their midfielder Odhran Murdock was the turning point of the game. It wasn’t so much the penalty as the awarding of the penalty that incensed many of the Westmeath players, management and supporters.
