Under 16 Football Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 5-12 Delvin/St Pauls 2-10

Our Under-16 lads delivered their best performance of the season with a comprehensive victory over a good Delvin/St Pauls team in Springfield on Monday evening. However, the game started badly for Shamrocks, conceding 1-1 early on and then losing full back Conor Kelly to an ankle injury (best wishes on a speedy recovery, Conor). This led to the earlier than anticipated introduction of Daragh Hughes, who won the next kick-out and set up Ollie McNamara for Shamrocks’ opening score. Hughes and midfield partner Ben White began to dominate in the middle and with Daithí Martin having a greater influence on the 40, Shamrocks got back into the game. A superbly weighted pass from the aforementioned Martin to McNamara led to Conor Fagan finding the net and putting Shamrocks ahead. McNamara goaled again to leave the home side winning 2-6 to 2-5 at the interval. The second half started like the first with Delvin side starting the stronger and rattling off four unanswered points. A good goal from Adam Boyle settled down the Shamrocks side. Excellent defending from Rian Adamson and William O’Reilly kept Delvin at bay. Hughes then went into full forward and grabbed 2 great goals which effectively killed off the game. This was an all-round excellent performance with everyone putting in a huge effort individually and also as a team.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Mikey McDonagh, Ciarán Kiernan (Cian McGrath), Conor Kelly (Daragh Hughes), Matthew Clinton (Nathan McLoughlin), Tomass Turks, William O’Reilly, Ben White, Rian Adamson, Adam Boyle (Michael Horan), Daithí Martin, Aaron Russell (Ben Egan), Oliver McNamara, Conor Fagan.