LGF Senior Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-7 Garrycastle 4-4,

There is no escaping it: the old cliché must be rolled out for this report. Goals win matches. Missed chances too contributed the final disappointing result. The four goals scored by Garrycastle proved to be crucial. Three of these were scored by Aoife Connolly in the opening twenty minutes or so and the fourth goal scored by Grace Halligan was created by the brilliant Connolly. As a result, Garrycastle held an interval lead of 4-0 to 0-5 with Karen Hegarty (0-3) and Anna Jones (0-2) responsible for the Shamrocks scores. Shamrocks played a lot of good football during the half but poor finishing ruined much of the good approach work. The crossbar too came to the rescue of Garrycastle on a number of occasions with great efforts from Clara Thornton and Anna Jones crashing off the bar to safety.

Shamrocks dominated for long spells during the second half but could not bridge the gap. Aoife Connolly added three points to her goal tally on resumption before an Anna Jones pointed free began the Shamrocks recovery. Aoife Dolan and Anna exchanged points and at the second water break the score read 4-4 to 0-7. Shamrocks dominated the final quarter but Garrycastle managed the final stages effectively. Karen Hegarty goaled and Megan McCormack saved well from Clara Thornton. Lauren McCormack too saved well from Shannon Mulvihill and at the final whistle Garrycastle had six points to spare in a match that featured 10 players from the Westmeath All-Ireland intermediate champion panel. At least three more members of the 2011 eleven title winning team, Emma Morris for Shamrocks, and rugby international Garrycastle’s Laura Walsh and Laura Brennan who scored a very important penalty on All-Ireland final day featured. Paul and Valerie McDermott were welcome spectators in Garrycastle just hours after an overnight flight from New York, home on a short visit to Mullingar.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Lauren McCormack; Melek Fagan, Niamh Spellman, Sophie Hegarty; Cliodhna Spellman (Annmarie O’Reilly), Tara Fagan, Máiread Newman; Anna Jones (0-4), Laura Whitelaw; Clara Thornton, Michaela O’Connor (Chloe Swarbrigg), Emma Morris; Susanna Buckley, Karen Hegarty (1-3), Casey McDermott.

LGF Senior B Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 0-12 Milltown 1-6

The Senior Ladies played their first home game of the championship on Sunday against Milltown in round 2 of the Senior B competition. Hopes were high after a good win in the first round, however it was clear from the throw-in that Milltown were going to be a very strong opposition. Playing against the wind, Shamrocks struggled to gain possession and make inroads into a tough Milltown defence. Milltown opened the scoring with a long-distance point from play, followed by a converted free to go 2 points up before Micaela O'Connor scored what was to be Shamrocks only score of the half, a point from play at about the 10-minute mark. Despite losing a player to a red card shortly after Milltown continued to dominate, making the most of their wind advantage to lead by 0-7 to 0-1 at half-time.

Shamrocks staged a mini revival in the second half with scores from Jasmine Haugh, Laura Culkin (a free) and Cliodhna Spellman. At this point the girls were beginning to get some momentum going however disaster struck when Milltown were awarded a penalty. Once again, things looked good when a super save by goalie Katie Kelly meant that the visitors were still only 3 ahead, with a strong wind favouring Shamrocks. Unfortunately, that is where the revival ended with Milltown scoring 3 unanswered points to go in at the second water break with a 6-point lead. In the final quarter, Shamrocks outscored the opposition by 1-2 to 0-2 points, with the only goal of the match from Casey McDermott, but the Shamrocks girls could not close the gap, Milltown ended up winners on a final scoreline of 1-6 to 0-12.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Katie Kelly, Annemarie O’ Reilly, Liveta Lazauskaite, Sophie Hegarty, Cliodhna Spellman (0-1), Chloe Swarbrigg, Orianna Quinn, Mairead Newman, Shona McNicholas, Laura Culkin (0-1), Casey McDermott(1-1), Jenna Kelly, Jasmine Haugh(0-1), Michaela O Connor (0-1), Holly McCormack(0-1), Ellie O Sullivan Sexton, Jodi Aherne, Eve Hynes, Alessia Hassett, Sinead Sweeney and Eve Byrne.