Senior Football Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 2-12 Athlone 2-17

Good, but not good enough was the Shamrocks verdict on this our third senior championship outing in Tubberclaire on Sunday evening as both club’s chose the occasion to produce their best championship performances of the season in what was the outstanding game of the championship to date. A score of 2-12 is normally good enough to win a championship encounter: the concession of 2-17 rarely provides a ticket to enter the winner’s enclosure.  

The fifteen minutes prior to the interval proved crucial on this occasion as the opening 15 minutes ended with the scores tied at 0-5 each. Dean Moore (0-2), Denis Corroon, Donal O’Donoghue and Darren Keena kicked the Shamrocks points before a good move involving Kiernan Gavin and Patrick Fagan ended with Denis Corroon’s shot dipping under the crossbar to send Shamrocks into a 1-5 to 0-6 lead in the eighteenth minute. The Athlone response was emphatic and the Shannon siders outscored Shamrocks 2-5 to 1-0 during the final ten minutes to establish an interval lead of 2-10 to 2-5, a 0-5 lead they maintained to the long-whistle. The Shamrock habit of disappearing from a match for a spell proved costly on this occasion. Shamrocks second goal was scored in the thirtieth minute and involved Micheál Curley, Darragh Daly and Dónal O’Donoghue combining to leave Dean Moore with the simple task of knocking the ball into an empty Athlone net. In this opening half, John Egan and John Connellan orchestrated matters for Athlone. Efi Siode managed to curb the impact of Egan after the interval but Connellan was the most influential player on the pitch for the duration. 

In the opening stages of the second-half Mullingar Shamrocks outscored Athlone 0-5 to 0-2 to cut the deficit (2-12 to 2-10) with points from Dean Moore (0-2), Denis Corroon (0-2) and Tye Adamson (who played very well on his introduction at the interval). Two pointed frees from Denis Corroon against a single Athlone effort reduced the deficit to the minimum with five minutes remaining (2-13 to 2-12) but as Shamrocks attempted to repeat the history of their opening two matches, Athlone scored four successive points to secure the vital championship victory (2-17 to 2-12).

It’s knock-out football from this point onwards as we face Garrycastle who are in a similar predicament to ourselves on Tuesday 22 August in Ballymore at 7.00pm. We cannot afford another defeat and remain as championship contenders.    

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Eddie Moore (Billy Flynn), Kieran Gavin, Efi Siode; Patrick Fagan, Killian Daly, Aaron Purcell; Darragh Daly and Dónal O’Donoghue (0-1) [David Gavin]; Denis Corroon (1-5), Micheál Curley, Simon Quinn (Tye Adamson 0-1); Darren Keena (0-1) [Dylan McDermott], Seanie Daly (David Coyne), Dean Moore (1-4).