Westmeath started brightly and they had two unanswered points on the board in the opening three minutes. Brían Cooney increased their lead with a great solo goal in the sixth minute before corner back Eoghan Williams opened Longford’s account with a point.
Three Longford points without reply between the 22nd and 25th minutes had the gap down to the bare minimum, but fine approach work by Tadhg Baker teed up Cooney for his second three-pointer from close range in the 26th minute to put the home team firmly in control. They went on to lead by 2-4 to 0-6 at the break.
A brace of Paddy Moran points in the opening 70 seconds of the second half kept Longford very much in contention, but when Cooney completed his hat-trick in fine style in the 47th minute Westmeath looked home and hosed, leading by 3-8 to 0-9.
Longford battled bravely in the closing quarter, but goals from sub Josh Kelly in the 56th minute and Michael Flynn in injury-time were not enough to rescue them.
Scorers – Westmeath: B Cooney 3-3 (0-1f), R Cole 0-2, D Lowry, J Duncan, R Murray, S Hanley 0-1 each.
Longford: Michael Flynn 1-2, P Moran, M Carey (3f) 0-3 each, J Kelly 1-0, E Williams 0-2, J Brady Hynes 0-1 (f).
Westmeath: S McNevin; A Keane, C Monaghan, S Bracken; D Lowry, J Macken, L Daly; T Baker, S Ormsby; J Duncan, B Cooney, E Bracken; R Cole, S Hanley, R Murray.
Subs: S Corcoran for Murray (h-t), M Thornton for Cole (49), T O’Donovan for E Bracken (50), D Hall for Baker (inj., 55).
Longford: O McManus; C Smith, R O’Toole, E Williams; G Farrelly, A Flynn, J Burke; O Flynn, C Lynch; P Moran, M Carey, R Shields; Michael Flynn, J Brady Hynes, B Mulvey.
Subs: J Belton for O Flynn (h-t), P Boyle for Mulvey (39), Matthew Flynn for A Flynn (41), J Kelly for Brady Hynes (48).
Ref: C McCullough (Louth).
