Ray Connellan kicked a late equaliser as Westmeath battled back from three points down to earn a draw with Tyrone.

This result coupled with the Armagh win in Carrick-on-Shannon left Tyrone third in the group and now have an away game in the preliminary quarter-final.

Westmeath had a chance to win the game and ultimately advance in the Sam Maguire Cup but Heslin was unfortunate with his free right at the end.

When the inspirational Darragh Kavanagh was fouled in the 69th minute and his brother Ruairi kicked over the resulting free the Red Hands were three ahead but credit to Westmeath they didn’t lie down.

Substitute Kieran Martin scored an excellent point, then Heslin kicked over a free before Ray Connellan drew the sides level for the 10th time in the third minute of stoppage time. 

There was nothing between the sides in the first half as they were level on seven different occasions. Westmeath opened the scoring through Sam McCartan and finished the half with a point from McCartan to give them a 0-08 to 0-07 lead.

McCartan, Luke Loughlin and John Heslin kicked over points for the Lake County in the first half while Darragh Canavan scored five of his side’s seven points. He was accurate from frees and scored two fine points from play.

In the 28th minute Westmeath goalie Jason Daly pulled off an excellent save to deny Con Fitzpatrick. Canavan and Loughlin traded points before Joe Oguz got his name on the scoresheet. Peter Harte hit over a free in the 34th minute but points from Loughlin (a fine effort from a free) and another from McCartan gave Westmeath a narrow lead at the break. 

Inside the opening 11 minutes of the second half Tyrone were in front by two. A soft free that was kicked over by Heslin cut the gap to one in the 52nd minute. Tyrone made changes and in the space of three minutes they extended their lead to four points in the 55th minute.

Heslin was again on target from a free two minutes later. In the 59th minute Kevin Maguire took Con Fitzpatrick down when he was through on goal. It appeared cynical but Maguire was shown a yellow card and no penalty was awarded to Tyrone.

Darragh Canavan and Senan Baker exchanged points before Brian Kennedy put three between the sides in the 63rd minute. With the game entertaining stoppage time it looked like Tyrone were going to claim the win but Dessie Dolan’s side showed great character right to the end.