Down and Westmeath battled their way to a draw in the third round of the Joe McDonagh Cup on Saturday in the Ards and while it wasn't much use to the visitors, Down are still in with a chance, with Offaly to come in the last round.
A hat-trick of goals from Tom McGrattan came to the hosts' rescue, with Pearse Óg McCrickard unerring on frees. Westmeath gave a good account of themselves considering they had nothing to play for realistically coming into this game on the back of two defeats.
The midlanders surprised Down when they flew out of the blocks notching up an early five-point lead before the home side registered a score.
McGrattan scored Down's first point in the sixth minute, but Kevin Regan and Owen McCabe responded to give Westmeath an 0-07 to 0-01 lead before McCrickard nabbed a second for Ronan Sheehan's men from a free.
But Westmeath kept knocking over the points as the onslaught continued and with 14 minutes on the clock Killian Doyle drilled the sliothar into the net to give Joe Fortune's side a 1-09 to 0-03 lead.
Down regrouped however and three minutes later McGrattan picked up a pass from Daithi Sands and finished to the net to narrow the margin to five points 1-09 to 1-04.
There were further points and plenty of wides as the end-to-end battle continued but on 31 minutes Sands set up McGrattan again for his second goal of the day and Down had narrowed the margin to two points with the visitors leading 1-15 to 2-10 at the break.
Down re-grouped and came out for the second half strongly, with three quick-fire points from McCrickard putting them in the lead for the first time in the game and when McGrattan hit his hat-trick goal on 43 minutes they led 3-13 to 1-12 and it looked like they might be on their way.
Westmeath had no intention of gifting Down a win however as they kept the scoreboard ticking over, while at the other end, McCrickard kept Down in the game with nine frees in total from his 0-13 tally.
The sides were level again, 3-17 to 1-23 with five minutes of normal time remaining but after McGrattan edged Down in front again with a super score, McCrickard missed what would turn out to be a crucial free.
He converted another in stoppage time following a point from David O'Reilly to keep Down in front by the minimum, but Westmeath centre-back Tommy Doyle had the last word with the last score of the game to finish the match 3-19 to 1-25.
Down: S Keith; M Conlan, C Cassidy, D Mallan; C Taggart, R McCrickard, J McManus, D Hughes (0-01), L Savage; P Og McCrickard (0-13, 9f), E Sands, T McGrattan (3-02) D Sands (0-01), F Turpin, T Prentar
Subs: P Savage (0-02) for D Sands 15, T Murray for McManus 19, B Trainor for Mallon 35, P Sheehan for Turpin 67
Westmeath: N Conaty; J Bermingham, T Doyle (0-01), C Gaffney; A Clarke (0-01), D Egerton, A Craig; P Clarke, K Regan (0-02); N Mitchell, D Williams (0-04 2f), O McCabe (0-01); D O'Reilly (0-05), K Doyle (1-07, 7f), E Keyes
Subs: J Mulkearns for Conaty 10, C Doyle (0-02,1f) for Doyle 35, C McCormack for Clarke 49, D Clinton (0-02) for Keyes 54 J Gillen for McCabe 67, J Smyth for C Doyle 70+2
Referee: James Connors (Donegal)
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