County Senior Football Championship, Section B: Caulry 2-13 Mullingar Shamrocks 1-10
A must win game that we didn’t and now we depend on the final results to qualify for the knock-out stages of the championship; relegation from senior ranks is also now back on the agenda after Caulry’s comprehensive and fully deserved victory in Rosemount on Saturday evening.
After two Paddy Sleator points, a great save by Philly Shaw, a Jack Gillen pointed free and some very poor Shamrocks shooting, Caulry held a lead of 0-2 to 0-1 at the first water break. A Seán Clinton point extended the Caulry lead following the restart, but another Jack Gillen pointed free reduced the deficit to the minimum. Finally, after twenty-two minutes Mullingar Shamrocks scored from play when Dean Moore pointed and equalised. Three minutes later, Brendan O’Reilly scored a superb goal after racing through the Caulry defence. Brendan began the move when he broke down the Caulry kickout to Daragh Daly who combined with Paddy Fagan before transferring to Brendan, who broke from defence and completed the move by blasting to the net. It was Shamrocks last score of the half; points by Alan Malynn and Conor McCormack (0-2) brought the sides level at the interval. In between McCormack’s points the crossbar deprived Lorcan Smyth of a goal as the sore at half-time read Caulry 0-6 Mullingar Shamrocks 1-3. At least another 1-3 had been missed by Shamrocks.
Caulry outscored Mullingar Shamrocks 0-4 to 0-2 in the third quarter; Alan Malynn was responsible for Caulry’s four points with Jack Gillen’s pointed free and a Seanie Daly point from play representing the Shamrocks contribution. Another great Philly Shaw save deprived Caulry of the goal that was likely to secure their victory. This goal arrived early in the third quarter after Senan Baker (well marshalled throughout by Mark Flynn) had added to the Caulry lead with a point as Andy O’Sullivan finished a move that shredded the Shamrocks defence. Within minutes, another Philly Shaw save was deemed to be a foot block and Emmet Nally goaled from the resultant penalty to effectively end the game as a contest with Caulry nine points ahead (2-11 to 1-5). As the rain poured down, Shamrocks launched a succession of attacks without any real prospect of breaking the Caulry house down. Dean Moore and Nally exchanged points before Patrick Fagan (0-1) and Dean Moore (0-3) added points to close the gap. However, the final point, a massive, long-range effort from a mark, was scored by Emmet Nally who proved to be a Caulry super sub on the evening. The final score read 2-13 to 1-10 in favour of Caulry.
There will be a lot more than local pride at stake when we play Shandonagh in our final match of the series in two weeks’ time. The + 11 points difference could be valuable yet.
Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Dillon Matthews, Eddie Moore, Mark Flynn (Efe Siode); Pearse Corroon (David Gavin), Micheál Curley, Brendan O’Reilly (1-0); Daragh Daly (Dónal O’Donoghue), Seanie Daly (0-1); Patrick Fagan (0-1), Lorcan Smyth, Denis Corroon; Ross Corroon (Ciarán Curley); Dean Moore (0-5), Jack Gillen (0-3) [Jordan Warde].
