Under-15 Football League Div.1: Mullingar Shamrocks 4-10 St Loman’s 2-6

In the end a very convincing win for Mullingar Shamrocks that seemed unlikely in the opening 15 minutes or so as the strong running of Jack McCann and midfielders Mikey Weir and Conor Caffrey carved open the Shamrocks defence on several occasions but this dominance wasn’t converted into scores. A great save by Adam Buckley prevented a St Loman’s goal in the opening attack. There was lots of good defending in this opening quarter especially by Tommy Idowu who reminded one of the little Dutch boy who kept his fist in the dam to prevent Holland from flooding.

After 15 minutes St Loman’s led by 0-3 to 0-2 with Ronan Byrne scoring a fine opening point for Shamrocks and Paul Keating pointing a free for our second score. A lobbing ball dropped under the crossbar for a St Loman’s goal; the Shamrocks response was immediate and from the restart a goal chance was created that ended with a great save by Graham Duggan from a Paul Keating shot. Points from Ben McNamee and Ronan Byrne cut the deficit and when Criostóir Ormsby was fouled in the large rectangle Paul Keating calmly dispatched the resultant penalty to the net to put Shamrocks into the lead (1-4 to 1-3). Graham Duggan again saved well from Ben McNamee from a move that was initiated by the pace and skill of Zak Coyne. Criostóir Ormsby pointed the resultant 45 and when Brendan Keena blew for the break his notebook read 1-5 to 1-3 in favour of Mullingar Shamrocks.

Conor Caffrey pointed for St Loman’s on the restart, but Criostóir Ormsby broke through and blasted to the net for a significant response. Paul Keating added a point which was balanced by a similar score from Sam McNally (2-6 to 1-5). Ted Aherne and Paul Keating added points and a Ben McNamee goal extended the Shamrocks lead to 0-9 points (3-8 to 1-5). Tommy Daly winning the ball made the key contribution to this score. Jack McCann, dangerous throughout, pointed for St Loman’s; a great block down by Padraig Casey proved that some to the old skills of Gaelic football have survived extinction. A penalty for St Loman’s was converted by McCann with as much class as Paul Keating’s first half effort but that proved to be St Loman’s final score. Andrew Opala battled hard to score a point, Tommy Daly goaled and a Paul Keating point brought the Shamrocks total to 4-10 at the final whistle.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Adam Buckley; Tommy Idowu, Ben Sheerin, Andrew Gavigan; Zak Coyne, Rory McCaul, Charlie Foy; Criostóir Ormsby (1-1), Andrew Opala (0-1); Ted Aherne (0-1), Padraig Casey, Ronan Byrne (0-2); Tommy Daly (1-0), Ben McNamee (1-1), Paul Keating (1-4), Other panellists: James Davitt, James Ryan, Isaac Haughey. Hugh Carey, Liam Heffernan, Brian Wycherley.