It was mission accomplished for both teams in this final match of the Group B of the Shay Murtagh Precast Senior Football Championship played in the freezing cold of a September evening in Kinnegad. There were no injuries and no red cards to disrupt future championship preparations in Mullingar or Castletown and Mullingar Shamrocks now play Tyrrellspass on Sunday evening in TEG Cusack Park starting at 5.15. For the first time since 2018, we have won 5 senior championship matches in succession but despite this we will start as total outsiders against Tyrrellspass who have been very impressive in their campaign to date.
The wind and cold made conditions difficult for football and despite the wind and hill advantage Shamrocks struggled to establish a significant lead. Dean Moore kicked the first point after Shane Ormsby gained possession from a Malachy’s restart and delivered the perfect pass to Dean. The resultant restart began a play that ended with Jordan Warde finishing to the net but the goal was ruled out for a ‘square ball’ infraction. A second point from Dean Moore finished a move that began with a great Dillon Matthews turnover deep in defence. After ten minutes, Shamrocks led by 0-2 to 0-0 after recording three wides, hitting the post and having a goal disallowed. In the thirteen minute, the O’Reilly brothers combined and John was the one providing the finishing touches for the third point. Jordan Warde pointed; John O’Reilly intercepted the restart and set up Dean Moore for the opening goal in the 16th minute. The game slipped away from Malachy’s at this stage and Deano, Paddy Fagan and Shane Ormsby added points before Denis Corroon kicked two that are worthy of special mention. The first a long range free and the second a wonderful effort with the left boot form a mile out. The restart was given away and Dean Moore provided the opportunity for Jordan Warde to score Shamrocks’ second goal. The Malachy’s restart again went wrong and this time Conn O’Hanlon pointed to complete the first half total of 2-10 inclusive of 9 wides.
Morgan Gavigan (who had an extraordinary 35 possessions during the match according to the statisticians) opened the St Malcahy’s scoring account from a free early in the second half but Paddy Fagan responded with a like score. Matt O’Shea added another point – his first in the Westmeath championship. Paddy Fagan and Jordan Warde also pointed and corner back Paul O’Sullivan made an mamzing save to deprive Brian Guerin of a goal. Sean Jackson also produced a great save later in the half to deprive Brian for a second time. Jack Murphy and Dean Moore exchanged points, Dean finishing a great Matt O’Shea break through the middle. Morgan Gavigan and Paddy Fagan pointed, Paddy’s point created by a great piece of fielding from Eoin Doran’s restart and run by Shane Ormsby that was completed by Paddy’s point. Neil Kirby, Darren Ruane and Morgan Gavigan with a great free responded with points for Malachy’s before Dean Moore kicked three successive points to complete the Shamrocks tally. Neil Kirby had the final score before the final whistle allowed us to escape from the cold.
Mullingar Shamrocks: Eoin Doran; Marc Eivers, David Gavin, Dillon Matthews; Conn O’Hanlon (0-1) [Davy Coyne], Matt O’Shea (0-1), Brendan O’Reilly; Conor O’Brien (Killian Daly) and Shane Ormsby (0-1); Patrick Fagan (0-4), Denis Corroon (0-2) [Lorcan Smyth], John O’Reilly (0-1); Brian Guerin, Dean Moore (1-7), Jordan Warde (1-2).
