Feis Cup: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-21 Killucan 1-15 (aet)

Mullingar Shamrocks came within seconds, and an Eddie Moore miracle save, of elimination from the 2017 Feis Cup on Wednesday evening to an understrength Killucan team deprived of several players due to inter-county hurling and football demands. It was one-way traffic for the opening ten minutes or so as Shamrocks totally dominated and Simon Quinn (0-2) and Seanie Daly pointed in the opening minutes to Killucan’s single point. Gradually Killucan lifted the pace and a Dan Riggs goal put the home side ahead and it was game-on with Killucan the more impressive side. Tye Adamson shot wide from a great goal scoring opportunity but 0-2 each from the two outstanding players on the night, Simon Quinn and Denis  Corroon earned Shamrocks an interval lead (0-7 to 1-3), despite shooting twelve wides in the half.

Simon Quinn (0-2) and Denis Corroon (0-3) dominated the second-half scoring for Shamrocks (0-3 each) with Quinn in superb form and kicking beautifully. Despite their best efforts, Killucan led by 1-10 to 0-10 as the game entered the final stages. One of the Killucan points was a collector’s item scored by goalkeeper David Bryan from play! The goalkeeper who delivered a master class in how to retain possession from restarts (we don’t have kick-outs any more) moved upfield to take a free when an alert Killucan player took the free quickly to the goalkeeper who kicked a fine long-range point. To their credit, Shamrocks responded well in the final minutes and after Seanie Daly ballooned a penalty over the bar, Paddy Joyce (who also excelled after the interval) and Denis Corroon levelled matters (1-10 to 0-13). Another David Bryan point, this time from a free, seemed to have secured the victory for Killucan but there was much more to come. Simon Quinn equalised, Killucan added a point  and deep in Fergie time, Tye Adamson equalised (1-12 to 0-15) with a massive long-range effort. There was one last piece of drama as a brilliant diving save from full-back Eddie Moore deprived Killucan of a winning goal. Tye Adamson had time for another big long-range effort but this time it was wide and extra-time was prescribed.

Mullingar Shamrocks dominated the additional time and outscored Killucan 1-6 to 0-3 over the twenty minutes. Simon Quinn put his stamp on the opening minutes and added 1-2 to his evenings’ total (1-8): the goal, a punched effort, followed a fine piece of combined play involving Seanie Daly, Tye, David Gavin before Simon Quinn supplied the finishing touch. Niall Hannigan and Denis Corroon also pointed, Tye Adamson added 0-2 in the second period to seal the victory, the first another outrageous long-range effort on a night of many outrageous scores!

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Aaron Purcell (David Coyne), Eddie Moore, Niall Hannigan (0-1); Micheál Curley (Kieran Gavin), Efi Siode, Brendan O’Reilly; Denis Corroon (0-6) and David Gavin; Paddy Joyce (0-1) [Pearse Corroon], Seanie Daly (0-2), Simon Quinn (1-8) [Kenneth O’Reilly]; Darren Keena (Eamonn Breslin), Pearse Corroon (Dónal O’Donoghue), Tye Adamson (0-3)