ACL Div.1 Mullingar Shamrocks 5-15 Castledaly 2-12

Mullingar Shamrocks ended their league campaign with a victory in Mediterranean-style  Castledaly on Tuesday night. Shamrocks dominated the first half, but this was not reflected on the scoreboard as the interval approached. Aaron Nugent goaled on the stoke of half-time to put Castledaly ahead (1-4 to 0-6). Despite the Shamrocks control, this was the third goal chance created by the home side, one was well saved by Philly Shaw, one smashed off the goal post and the third was converted by Nugent. Ciarán Curley, Denis Corroon and Paddy Joyce had points for Shamrocks in the first seven minutes before the scoring rate dropped. Dean Moore, Darren Keena, and Curley again, completed the first-half tally in which the Shamrocks points and wides tally formed an equal match.  An unusual stat from this half (supplied by master statistician Conor McKenna) was that Castledaly did not committee a single foul and had no foul awarded against them.

The second-half opened with a Shamrocks goal scored by the impressive Jordan Warde. Denis Corroon (the outstanding player on the field) added a point to establish a three-point lead for Shamrocks. Castledaly upped the intensity and responded with a Cathal Dolan goal to level matters (1-7 to 2-4). Darren Keena and Lorcan Dolan exchanged points before M. J. McLoughlin pointed Castledaly ahead. Brendan O’Reilly battled hard and goaled and a good Philly Shaw fingertip save from a Cathal Dolan shot prevented a like score for Castledaly. M.J. McLoughlin pointed to again level matters (2-8 to 2-8).

Mullingar Shamrocks third goal proved crucial and was scored by Paddy Joyce (a very modern type scoring wing-half back) who finished a great move that began with a free awarded deep in the heart of the Shamrocks defence and involved six different players.  Shamrocks dominated from that point and Dean Moore went on a bit of a scoring spree and added 2-4 to the Shamrocks total. Denis Corroon added 0-2 and Paddy Joyce also pointed to secure the league points and extended our unbeaten ACL Div.1 league run to seven matches. Unfortunately, this was not good enough to qualify for the final as St Loman’s victory over The Downs (5-12 to 1-18) meant that Mullingar Shamrocks fell a single league-point short of a final place.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Eddie Moore, Efe Siode (Marc Eivers), Mark Butler; Paddy Joyce (1-2), Davy Coyne (Ryan Blundell), Micheál Curley; Denis Corroon (0-4) and Donal O’Donoghue; Ross Corroon (Conor Twomey), Dean Moore (2-5), Brendan O’Reilly (1-0) [Dillon Matthews]; Darren Keena (0-2), Ciarán Curley (0-2) {Pearse Corroon], Jordan Warde (1-0)