Westmeath Junior Championship: Shamrocks 2-5 Tubberclair 1-7.

Our junior team opened their championship campaign with a one point win against Tubberclair on Friday night.  In truth this game was not easy on the eye but our lads gave everything they had to grind out a  victory. Sean O’ Brien opened the scoring in the first minute with a well-taken point after a fine solo run. That was to be our only score in the first half and Tubberclair tagged on five unanswered points to lead at half-time 0-5 to 0-1.

After the restart, Sean O’ Brien was fouled in the large rectangle and Brendan O’ Reilly converted the resultant penalty.  Tubberclair responded with a goal and it looked like the game was beyond Shamrocks grasp.

The lads dug deep however and O’Brien again found the net with a well taken effort. Tubberclare added two points to give then a three point cushion. These were their last scores and two fine points from Ross Corroon and James Grogan narrowed the gap to the minimum. Sean O’ Brien levelled proceedings before a monster score from the impressive Nathan Gavin gave Shamrocks a lead they would not relinquish.

The game ended unpleasantly when a bit of a skirmish developed near the Shamrocks goalmouth that ended with red cards for Daragh Ryan and a Tubberclare player. Tubberclare missed what seemed a straight forward free to level matters at the end and Shamrocks survived for a deserved victory and a great start to the championship.

Team: Daragh Ryan; David Coyne, Paul Christie (Robert Ryan) , Ryan Blundell; Kyle Maguire, James Grogan 0-1 , Pearse Corroon (Oisín Dolan) ; Seán Maguire, Seán O'Brien 1-2 ; Ross Corroon 0-1 , Dermot Curley, Brendan O'Reilly 1-0  (Sam Gilmartin) ; Nathan Smith 0-1 (Seán Raeside) Gary Corroon, Jordan Warde.