Fair Green Shopping Centre LGF Senior Championship: St Mary’s, Rochfortbridge 2-10 Mullingar Shamrocks 3-5.

Playing the county champions from two of the last three years in their home venue is never easy but our senior team lived to tell the tale tonight and came very close to claiming the championship points but in the end it wasn’t to be and St Mary’s, Rochfortbridge were leading by 2-10 to 3-5 when the final whistle was blown.

Mullingar Shamrocks began well and dominated the opening ten minutes, but a number of good scoring chances were missed, including two good goalscoring opportunities, before Clara Thornton crashed the ball to the net for the opening score to confirm that she brought the good form she displayed against Killucan to Rochfortbridge for this outing. The lead was short lived as Megan Brick kicked a brace of points before Aoife Brady goaled, a score conceded rather than created. St Mary’s outscored Shamrocks over the next 15 minutes 0-4 to 0-2 with Karen Hegarty adding to the Shamrocks total. Niamh McDermott (0-2), Casey Geoghegan and Nicola Judge contributed to the St Mary’s total who retired to the interval break leading by 1-6 to 1-2.

Karen Hegarty and Casey Geoghegan exchanged points after the break as did Megan Brick and Karen (1-8 to 1-4). A second Clara Thornton goal reduced the deficit to the minimum but St Mary’s dominated for ten minutes that proved to be crucial Aimee Cully scored the vital goal, Megan Brick and Karen McDermott added two points to extend the St Mary’ s lead (2-9 to 2-4). Shamrocks refocussed, finished strongly and dominated the final minutes during which time Karen Hegarty goaled and Clara Thornton pointed after a great run by Susanna Buckley created the opportunity. Unfortunately, time caught up with the revival and at the final whistle St Mary’s had two points to spare. There were no championship points, but the Shamrocks women and management can be happy with the display on the night with a very solid team performance.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Lauren McCormack; Sophie Hegarty, Niamh Spellman, Annemarie O’Reilly; Susanna Buckley, Tara Fagan, Melek Fagan; Caoimhe Gaffney, Mairead Newman; Clara Thornton (2-1), Michaela O’Connor, Emma Morris; Karen Hegarty (1-3), Honor MacNamara, Mia Gilligan (Chloe Smullen) (Holly McCormack).