ACL Div.1: Mullingar Shamrocks 0-13 Rosemount 1-9.

Mullingar Shamrocks returned from Rosemount on Friday evening with two league points secured after a tough battle with the home team. Playing against wind and hill in the first half, Shamrocks scoring chances were few and at the interval we had only three points to show for our efforts, scored by Daren Keena from play, Stewie Flynn from a free and a volleyed effort from Billy Flynn. Darren Keena was forced to retire before the interval with a concussion injury. We thank the Rosemount medical staff for tending to Darren.  Rosemount were 1-2 ahead within five minutes and if Philly Shaw contributed to the goal with a kick-out that was a bit dodgy, he made amends mid-way through the half with a fine save that kept the Rosemount lead within manageable proportions. Rosemount’s David McCormack was the most influential player during this period and he kicked a number of spectacular points to send Rosemount into an interval lead of 1-6 to 0-3.  Rosemount added two more points early in the second half to extend their lead but Tye Adamson (0-2) and Patrick Fagan (0-1) began the Shamrocks recovery. Rosemount were forced into conceding frees and Stewie Flynn (0-3) and Dylan McDermott (0-2) punished the transgressions. The last of Stewie’s efforts was particularly noteworthy as he chipped the ball over the crossbar from 50 metres out. Stewie is a specialist in a skill that is becoming a dying art in Gaelic football; his dead ball kicking is as good as you’ll get.  Patrick Fagan, who excelled all through, kicked the equalising point into injury time and one last Rosemount foul provided Stewie Flynn with an opportunity to test his skill with a little bit of added pressure. The technique survived the test and from 35 metres Flynn chipped the ball right over the black spot to put Shamrocks ahead for the first time and secured the league points. The performance of Eddie Moore is worthy of special mention as he was undoubtedly Shamrock’s outstanding player and he gave a superb display of defending with his handling at pace especially noteworthy.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Aaron Purcell (Denis Corroon), Paul Christie (Conor Moore), Eddie Moore; Paddy Joyce, Killian Daly, Micheál Curley; Patrick Fagan (0-2) and Conor Twomey; Brian Melody (Brendan O’Reilly), Dylan McDermott (0-2), Billy Flynn (0-1); Darren Keena (0-1) [Kieran Gavin], Stewie Flynn (0-5), Tye Adamson (0-2).