By Paul Keane

With 13 minutes of normal time remaining in the inaugural Tailteann Cup final, by Westmeath manager Jack Cooney's own admission he was a worried man.

They'd been overwhelmed throughout the third quarter, and outscored 1-4 to 0-2 by Cavan in that period, leaving the 2020 Ulster champions sitting pretty with a three-point lead and vital momentum.

Remarkably, Cavan didn't score again as Westmeath took over and reeled off 1-4 without response to secure the silverware.

If it looked from the stands as if Westmeath had some sort of grand plan to strike late, it really wasn't the case and Cooney smiled when asked if he was worried as the hour mark approached.

"I was to be honest," he said. "We probably went through a phase where we had three or four chances to kick scores and we didn't take them. Sometimes that can put you back on your heels a little bit and you don't recover and then a goal goes in like Cavan got and you can think it's not going to be your day.

"But the lads showed great character. They showed it here in this game but they really showed it over the weeks and months and even years. I actually thought that when our own goal went in, the yelp that went up, you'd swear there was 80,000 Westmeath people there! It certainly felt like that."

There was another concerning moment for Cooney two minutes into the four minutes of allotted stoppage time when Cavan's Conor Maden bore down on goal but a last ditch block by Westmeath captain Kevin Maguire saved the day. Shortly after, Ronan Wallace kicked a Westmeath score to make it a four-point game.

"What an inspirational captain," said Cooney of Maguire. "I'm delighted for him because he's the most unassuming, humble guy you'll ever meet and he's driving it on every week. I'm delighted he got to lift the silverware."

Cooney was particularly proud too of substitute Martin whose 67th minute solo goal ultimately separated the teams. Martin is a clubmate of former Westmeath player Eoin Farrell who recently passed away.

"You know something, we've been delivering messages since the day we came in that everything is taken from the training ground and based on what we do there," said Cooney.

"Kieran has trained phenomenally well over the last number of weeks. Kieran lost a good friend last week in Maryland, 'Eoinie' Farrell. We spoke about that during the week, as we did with Enda Mulvihill (passing away) the previous week.

"They're not forgotten. I think things like that tighten a group and we went out and trained for Kieran that night. He was phenomenal in training that night and you could see he brought that spirit with him into the pitch today."