Ladies Gaelic Football, Div.1 League: Mullingar Shamrocks  5-11 Garrycastle 2-9

Mullingar Shamrocks senior LGF continued with their good form with this eleven point victory  against Garrycastle.  The visitors began impressively and opened the scoring with a point from play and had an opportunity to add to this total when referee Jim Rock awarded a penalty conceded to prevent a certain goal. However, Aoife Connolly’s strike was superbly saved by Lauren McCormack in the Shamrocks goal; this was the first of many fine saves made by Lauren who brings great assurance to the position with her safe handling and good ball-kicking skills. She is also well capable of making the spectacular save as Aoife Connolly discovered with her penalty kick. Shamrocks, with an all-new half-back line with Susanne Buckley making her senior debut,  gradually gained the upper-hand and points from Gemma Kerrigan, Anna Jones, Emma Morris and Karen Hegarty edged Shamrocks into a 0-4 to 0-2 lead. A brilliant save by the Garrycastle keeper prevented an Anna Jones goal but when Mullingar Shamrocks were awarded a penalty Anna, who gave another powerful display, stepped-up and dispatched the ball to the Garrycastle net with considerable finesse. An Emma Morris shot crashed off the crossbar but Casey McDermott shot a great Shamrocks point after Anna Jones began the move deep in the Shamrocks defence with a superb turnover that also involved Melek Fagan in some great play (1-5 to 0-2). Shamrocks added 1-3 before the interval with Emma Morris netting and adding a point from a free, Karen Hegarty also pointed before Gemma Kerrigan, who had a great match, pointed to conclude the first-half scoring. One who didn’t feature on the score sheet in this half was Carole Finch who was virtually unbeatable and won every ball that arrived in her vicinity and in the process became the creator-in-chief for her fellow forwards in what was a great display of unselfish play.

Mullingar Shamrocks outscored the wind-assisted Garrycastle 1-2 to 0-3 during the opening ten minutes of the second-half with Michelle Buckley and Carole Finch scoring points before Carole also added a goal which was created by a superb Anna Jones mid-field catch. A second Garrycastle penalty was superbly netted by Aoife Connolly who was creating problems for Shamrocks at this stage but a Gemma Kerrigan point steadied matters (3-11 to 1-8). Carole Finch’s deployment as sweeper also helped to shore-up the defence. There was better to come: Anna Jones gained possession from a Garrycastle restart surged through the centre before passing to Clara Thornton who dispatched the ball to the net. Aoife Connolly responded with another goal before some great work by Gemma Kerrigan provided another goal-scoring opportunity for Clara Thornton. Clara made no mistake and scored her second goal, the final score of the evening. Overall, a great victory for Shamrocks, one achieved by great defending, great team work and commitment, some great passages of combined play that were completed by landing the important scores and a ferocious work-rate made possible by the team’s excellent levels of fitness.

These qualities will be tested once again on Friday night when The Downs roll into Springfield. 

Mullingar Shamrocks: Lauren McCormack; Melek Fagan, Chloe Swarbrigg, Lorna Morris (Carla Gibney): Niamh Kennedy, Tara Fagan, Susanne Buckley; Michelle Buckley (0-1) [Sarah Geoghegan] and Anna Jones (1-1); Gemma Kerrigan (0-3), Emma Morris (1-2), Áine Melody; Casey McDermott (0-1) [Clara Thornton 2-0], Karen Hegarty (0-2), Carole Finch (1-1). 

 ACL Div.4: Mullingar Shamrocks 6-14 Milltownpass 1-8.

 Milltownpass were seriously under-strength for this ACL Div. 4 match which acted as a curtain-raiser for the LGF Div.1 League match. Milltownpass began with thirteen players and suffered the consequences and trailed at half-time by 3-11 to 0-2. Tye Adamson helping himself to a hat-trick of goals and Ross Corroon pointing two 45s were worthy of note. In the second-half Milltown were more effective and Robbie Boyle was forced to make some good saves but there was also the matter of a Milltownpass 45 that floated unhindered to the roof of the net. Being a goalkeeper is never easy. Ross Corroon, Ciaran Curley and Paddy Joyce were the second-half goal scorers.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Robbie Boyle; Ciaran Murphy, Marc Eivers, Eamonn Breslin; Mark Butler, Ross Corroon (1-3), Paddy Joyce (1-0); Nathan Smyth (0-1) & David Coyne; Matthew Maslin, Tye Adamson (3-1) [Tom Farrell], Ciarán Curley (1-6); Seán Wylie (0-1), Gary Corroon (0-1), James Grogan (0-1).