ACL Div. 1: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-8 St Loman’s 3-13

This is the local derby that provides goalkeepers with an opportunity to deliver  an exhibition of their shot stopping  skills. Last year it was the Mullingar Shamrocks goalkeeper, D. J. Fedronas who put on the show; in this match it was Jason Daly’s turn to put on an exhibition and despite the one-sided nature of the scoreboard, the St Loman’s netminder had at least a half-dozen super saves to his credit. Even the umpire applauded one, but overall DJ’s performance last year was probably better. Two of Jason Daly’s saves launched swift counter-attacks that ended with St Loman’s putting the ball in the Shamrocks net. After a relatively even first half which ended with St Loman’s leading by 0-6 to 0-3 the game as a contest was ended within five minutes of the restart when Ken Casey (1-1) and Gareth Hickey (0-1) extended the St Loman’s lead (1-8 to 0-3). It could have been worse as Casey also blasted a shot off the goalpost during this spell. Patrick Fagan (0-2) and Ross Corroon (0-1) replied for Shamrocks but two goals from the outstanding Shane Dempsey (who scored 2-6 on the night) banished any doubt that might have existed about the result. Tye Adamson knocked over two points for Shamrocks and Conor Moore goaled but it was too little too late and St Loman’s were comfortable winners despite the best efforts of Killian Daly and Patrick Fagan. As always it is possible to find positives: we created several goal scoring chances, Efi Siode and Seanie Daly were in the subs and  back after their winter break while Adam Smith, Marc Eivers and Dillon Matthews made their first senior start for Shamrocks and were still there at the finish. This in itself is worthy of note.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Adam Smith; David Coyne (Conor Moore 1-0), Killian Daly, Marc Eivers; Brendan O’Reilly (Alan Cashman), Eddie Moore, Paddy Joyce [0-1] (Aaron Purcell); Dillon Matthews and Denis Corroon; Patrick Fagan (0-2), Tye Adamson (0-2), Ross Corroon (0-1); Darren Keena (Kenneth O’Reilly) , Dean Moore [0-1] (Pearse Corroon) and Ciarán Curley [0-1] (Jordan Warde).