A disappointing performance and result for an understrength Mullingar Shamrocks  with a possible ACL Div.1 League final at stake. On a night where plenty of mistakes were inevitable in the conditions, Mullingar Shamrocks dominated the early stages and were in control for most of the first half based on the solid midfield play of Donnacha Maguire and Darragh Daly but unfortunately, this was not reflected on the scoreboard. Denis Corroon opened the scoring with a pointed free from a difficult angle and Trevor Keena doubled the lead when he completed a long and patient move that began deep in defence.  Athlone followed with the only goal of the half that came from one of the most dangerous plays in Gaelic football – the shot for a point that drops short. Athlone extracted the maximum from this one and Stephen O’ Connor beat Eoin Doran to the punch and scored one of those goals that rest in the conceded rather than created category. John O’Reilly responded with the only two-pointer of the evening – somebody mentioned that the dad never ventured that far from the goal in his long and distinguished career for Shamrocks. Over the next ten minutes or so Shamrocks, outscored Athlone 0-4 to0-1. Denis Corroon pointed from play, Stephen O’Connor pointed an Athlone free; Conn O’Hanlon pointed after one of his typical breaks from deep, Denis again pointed a free and Trevor Keena scored his second point after a superb piece of fielding and delivery from Lorcan Smyth. After 20 minutes, if the scoreboard was in operation, it would have read 0-8 to 1-1. Incredibly, 37 minutes were to pass before Shamrocks were to score again.  The half concluded with three Athlone points to cut the interval deficit to the minimum (0-8 to 1-4). 

Thirteen minutes elapsed before the umpires had to reach for a flag in the second half and this came when referee Seán Carroll adjudged that Shamrocks were guilty of a four-men back infraction and Sean O’Connor tapped over the resultant free and the sides were level. A James Finlass point followed by a Sean O’ Connor pointed free and a pointed 45 by Kieran Colclough established a three-point lead for Athlone (1-8 to 0-8). The 45 resulted from a brilliant Eoin Doran save, a second brilliant save by Eoin resulted in a fruitless Athlone 45. While all this was going on over elaboration proved costly for Shamrocks and two great goal scoring opportunities were wasted, the first created by a superb Darragh Daly interception and solo-run.  Sean O’Connor pointed another free to extend the Athlone lead to 0-4. Finally, in the 27th minute, Dillon Matthews finished to the net. Ironically, the goal came after Shamrocks failed to win their own kick out for the seventh time of ten restarts as the Athlone possession was turned over. Referee, Seán Carroll played an additional eight scoreless minutes as Athlone held on to the lead in what was  a wideless second half for Shamrocks.  

Mullingar Shamrocks: Eoin Doran; Dillon Matthews (1-0), Efe Siode, Adam Glynn; Conn O’ Hanlon (0-1), Brendan O’Reilly, Killian Daly (Davy Gavin); Darragh Daly, Donnacha Maguire; Ryan Kelly (Pearse Corroon), John O’Reilly (0-2), Lorcan Smyth; Jordan Warde, Denis Corroon (0-3), Trevor Keena (0-2) [Ollie MacNamara].