Senior Football Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 1- 16 St Mary’s Rochfortbridge 0-10

This comfortable victory achieved with a workmanlike display ensured that the final match of the group against Rosemont will be a winner-takes-all affair with a place in the quarter final of the championship as the reward. The game has been scheduled for Cusack Park next Sunday evening at 6.00pm.
It was a difficult night for football with a strong wind blowing directly downfield towards the Harbour Court apartments. St Mary’s were wind-advantaged in the first-half but it was Shamrocks who made the initial advances and playing with great composure scored the opening two points created by the most patient of approach work. Denis Corroon and Simon Quinn were the finishers. This was followed by a Jordan Warde goal who displayed the poacher’s instinct as he collected a goalpost rebound and crashed to the net. After 7 minutes it was 1-2 to 0-0 and St Mary’s were under pressure. Points by Niall and Ned Cully reduced the deficit before Tye Adamson added another point to the Shamrocks total. This was a superb team score that began back in the left corner-back position with a great Eddie Moore turnover. Ian Keelan pointed and a Colin Gavin sideline bounced over the crossbar to narrow the gap (1-3 to 0-4) before Patrick Fagan had his first point of the night. This was created by a Denis Corroon mark who delivered to Dean Moore who in turn supplied the pass to the inrushing Fagan who pointed. Keelan pointed again and so too did Fagan, this one created by Micheál Curley who broke through several tackles to create the chance. The centre-back continues to do what he has been doing for at least a decade: break tackles and push forward with ferocious intent. Denis Corroon added another point to leave the interval score 1-6 to 0-5, a most satisfactory position from the Shamrocks perspective given the conditions of the evening.
On resumption St Mary’s dominated the early exchanges and Niall Culley and Ian Keely pointed before Tye Adamson pointed a 45 – a rare enough occurrence for a Shamrocks player. Eddie Moore was next to feature on the scorecard after Patrick Fagan, Denis Corroon and Donal O’Donoghue combined to create the opening. Eddie chose wisely and opted to pop the ball over rather than blast for the net. Colin Gavin pointed but Tye Adamson pointed twice to widen the gap (1-10 to 0-8). Patrick Fagan ended a brilliant solo run with a point, Denis Corroon pointed a free, and good work by Alan Cashman created a point scoring opportunity for Donal O’Donoghue. A Matty Rouden pointed free rekindled St Mary’s hopes but two more Patrick Fagan points sealed the Shamrocks victory. The second effort showed that football can sometimes be a simple game. Denis Corroon marked from a restart and delivered to Daragh Daly on the edge of the square who in turn offloaded to Patrick Fagan for the point (1-15 to 0-9). In the final minutes Ian Keelan and Denis Corroon traded points and when Sean Carroll ended the evening’s football Mullingar Shamrocks were deserving 1-16 to 0-10 winners in what was a fine team performance with some great individual displays on a night when the greater experience of Mullingar Shamrocks was crucial.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Eddie Moore (0-1), Killian Daly, Aaron Purcell; Brendan O’Reilly, Micheál Curley, Paddy Joyce [Billy Flynn]; Patrick Fagan (0-5) and Denis Corroon (0-4); Tye Adamson (0-4) [Dillon Matthews], Donal O’Donoghue (0-1), Alan Cashman [Ross Corroon]; Jordan Warde (1-0) [Kieran Gavin], Dean Moore [Ciarán Curley] and Simon Quinn (0-1).