Westmeath 3-15 Cavan 0-11
Leona Archibold scored 1-6 and claimed the player-of-the-match award as Westmeath saw off Cavan by 13 points in Sunday’s Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 2 final replay.
Westmeath, Division 2 runners-up last year and in 2014, finally gained promotion to the top flight, capping a remarkable rise in recent years.
The Lake County were Division 4 winners in 2011, claimed Division 3 honours a year later and are now preparing for Division 1 fare next year.
In a surprisingly one-sided rematch at St Brendan’s Park in Birr, Westmeath scored all but one point of their big tally from play.
They also lost Karen McDermott to the sin-bin shortly before half-time but coped admirably in her absence as Cavan struggled to reproduce the kind of football that saw them go close to victory in the drawn match at Parnell Park.
Aisling Doonan did well, notching six points, but Westmeath had the better spread of scorers.
Westmeath
K Walsh; R Dillon, A Giles, A Martin; F Coyle, R Dunne, L Brennan (1-1); K McDermott, MA Foley (0-2); F Claffey, L Archibold (1-6,0-1f), K Boyce-Jordan; L McCartan (0-3), L Walsh (0-2), C Blundell (1-1).
Subs: J Maher for Boyce-Jordan (44), C Kelly for L Walsh (52), L Slevin for Blundell (58), K Dunne for Martin (59).
Cavan
E Walsh; R Doonan, A Cornyn, M Sheridan; S Greene, L Fitzpatrick, S Reilly; S O'Sullivan, D English; C Smith (0-2), A Rooney, N Byrd; A Sheridan, C O'Reilly (0-2, 0-1f), A Doonan (0-6, 0-3f).
Subs: R Jordan for Byrd (26), R Talbot for Rooney (35), G Smith for O'Reilly (46), E Farrelly-McGee for C Smith (52).
Referee: B Rice (Down).
Tipperary 0-15 Wexford 1-10
Aishling Moloney and Aisling McCarthy contributed 0-11 between them as Tipperary were crowned Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 3 champions on Sunday.
Despite losing three players to second half sin-binnings, and finishing the game with 13 players, Tipp held out in an enthralling replay against Wexford at St Brendan’s Park, Birr.
Beaten finalists after a replay with Waterford last year, Tipp got over the line this time to secure promotion to Division 2.
And they had to do it the hard way, coming from six points down in the first half to hold on with two to spare.
Wexford
MR Kelly; M Doyle, M Cullen, S Harding-Kenny; N Mernagh, R Murphy, G Hearne; B Breen (0-1), K Kearney (0-1); C Donnelly, C Murray (0-1), N Butler; A Murphy (0-2), F Rochford (1-3, 0-1f), E O'Brien (0-2).
Subs: S Cloake for Hearne (46), F Rowe for Butler (57).
Tipperary
L Fitzpatrick; E Buckley, S Condon, C Condon; B Condon, S Lambert, M Curley; J Grant (0-1), A Moloney (0-6, 0-1f); E Fitzpatrick, A McCarthy (0-5, 0-4f), N Lonergan; G O'Brien (0-1), O O'Dwyer (0-2), M Morrissey.
Subs: R Howard for Lonergan (46), E Kelly for Morrissey (52).
Referee: S McNulty (Wicklow).
