ACL Div. 1: Mullingar Shamrocks 0-10 Coralstown-Kinnegad 0-4

The best performance to date as Mullingar Shamrocks deservedly defeated Coralstown-Kinnegad in Springfield on Sunday morning. The losers enjoyed the benefit of a strong wind in the first half but failed to use it to their advantage indicated by their significant wides tally. Darren Giles opened the scoring but this was almost immediately cancelled by a Denis Corroon point who finished from a great Patrick Fagan run. Ciarán Curley added another and Paddy Joyce scored Shamrocks third point after the most patient of possession play that involved thirty-one passes without a Kinnegad intervention. A modern point for the modern game.  Kinnegad held the upper hand for the remainder of the half during which time Ger Leech added three points to put his team ahead at the interval by a single point. Sone great Shamrocks defending at this stage limited the Kinnegad scoring opportunities with Efe Siode excelling on his return to active service.  Dónal O’Donoghue and Seanie Daly also returned after their winter break and contributed significantly to the victory. Micheál Curley also made a brief appearance as he completes his recovery from surgery to his injured knee.

Shamrocks second half dominance was reflected in Kinnegad’s failure to register a score and on resumption Patrick Fagan and Denis Corroon pointed to send Shamrocks into a single point lead. Denis then pointed a sideline kick with a special that was almost an exact replica of Maurice Fitzgerald’s famous point in Thurles back in the days when Tommy Carr managed Dublin and several counties could expect to beat the then not so fearsome Dubs. The GAA has become a very different animal since that time. Patrick Fagan having his best game for some time kicked two more points and Dillon Matthews and Dean Moore had a point each as Mullingar Shamrocks secured the valuable league points in what was an uncompromising second-half.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Billy Flynn (Marc Eivers). Efe Siode, Eddie Moore; Paddy Joyce (0-1) [Micheál Curley], Kieran Gavin, Dillon Matthews (0-1) [Pearse Corroon]; Patrick Fagan (0-3) and Denis Corroon (0-3); Brendan O’Reilly (David Coyne), Dónal O’Donoghue, Seanie Daly; Darren Keena (Alan Cashman), Dean Moore (0-1) Ciarán Curley (0-1) [Kenneth O’Reilly]