ACL Div. 5: Mullingar Shamrocks 0-9 The Downs 0-13

The Downs started and finished strongly in this Division 5 game played in Arctic conditions on Thursday evening in The Downs. Jordan Ward opened the scoring for Shamrocks with a neat finish but The Downs responded with two points. Nathan Gavin levelled matters with a pointed 45. After fifteen minutes the sides were level at 0-3 each when fifteen minutes of good Shamrocks play inspired by Gary Corroon and well supported by Brendan O’Reilly secured a 0-7 to 0-3 interval lead. Gary scored 0-2 and Brendan O’Reilly and Darren Keena shared a point each.  In the opening minutes of the second half Jordan Ward scored his third point and Darren Keena added another to put Shamrocks into a six point lead. Unfortunately the Shamrocks scoring for the evening ended at this stage; The Downs added 0-10 without a Mullingar response with Jimmy Conroy in particular showing that class that once made him one of Westmeath’s leading forwards.

Shamrocks: Daragh Ryan; San Gilmartin, James Grogan, Kyle Maguire; Pearse Corroon (Neil Hannigan), Conor Twomey, Stephen Hassett; Stewie Flynn (Oisín Dolan) and Nathan Gavin (0-1); Ross Corroon, Darren Keena (0-2), Brendan O’Reilly (0-1); Jordan Ward (0-3), Gary Corroon (0-2), Mickey McKnight.