ACL Div. 5: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-9 Castledaly 2-9

The second narrow defeat in the week for our ACL Div.5 team this time against a Castledaly side like ourselves striving to avoid relegation. After leading by 0-6 to 0-5 at the interval after playing against a strong breeze Shamrocks appeared to be in a good position and when Mark Shaw kicked two good points to extend the lead it looked even better. Castledaly however responded and upped their game and began to string together some good passing movements. Two of these resulted in goals both finished by Michael Lynch and secure a 2-7 to 0-8 lead for the visitors. Shamrocks too responded and Adam Boyle kicked a history making great long-range point to narrow the gap. Then Matthew Siode, taking a leaf from Efi’s book, soloed the length of the field to score a great goal (this was a match of three great goals). Matthew’s initial attempt was blocked but he buried the rebound. And then the Castledaly defence parted and Robbie Boyle was through and a goal looked certain as Robbie blasted for the top corner but M. J. McLoughlin (a player who caused us a lot of heartaches in the past as a forward) rose to the occasion and saved brilliantly. Ryan Blundell pointed but the final whistle ended the recovery.

However, a little bit of Mullingar Shamrocks history was created in this match it is believed. When Adam Boyle pointed in the second half, he was completing a family double as the daddy Robbie scored a point in the first half. This was the first occasion a father and son have scored for Mullingar Shamrocks in a competitive match or any other type of match for that matter as far as we know.

One has to admire the dedication of some of the experienced players who lined out for Shamrocks in this game. Well done to Robbie Boyle and Ritchie Daly who lined out for the second time in a few hours as they were members of the Westmeath Over-40s team that defeated Laois in the Leinster championship in a curtain raiser to the ACL game.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Mikey Curley; Ritchie Daly, Matthew Siode (1-0), Eamonn Breslin; Conor Fitzpatrick (0-1), Ryan Blundell (0-1), Ben Egan; Niall Hannigan (0-1), Andrew Shaw; Seán Hynes, Paddy Joyce (0-1), Adam Boyle (0-1); Mark Shaw (0-3), Robbie Boyle (0-1) [Garrett Doyle], Brian Melody.