Minor Football Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 3-12 Tubberclare 0-6.

A convincing win for Mullingar Shamrocks in this Minor Championship match. Shamrocks attacked from the beginning and opened with a string of well taken points and had five on the board after 4 minutes; Callum Rigney raced through for a goal and the same player set up Luke McCabe for a second strike before the end of the first quarter by which time Shamrocks had established a 2-7 to 0-3 lead. Good defending and tackling kept the Tubberclare forwards in check and the visitors only managed a single point from play on this occasion. It matters little for the teams will possibly meet again in the knock-out stages of the championship when the result will really matter. The second quarter was scoreless and the Shamrocks scoring rate dropped in the second half. The highlight of this half was a great third Shamrocks goal that began with a long kick-out from Eoin Doran that was superbly fielded by Shane Ormsby who parted to Callum Rigney whose superb pass split the Tubberclare defence before the ball was blasted to the net. A superb finish and a great 4-touch goal.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Eoin Doran; Adam Glynn, Gary Brannigan, Dylan Carey; Tadhg Sheridan (0-1), William O’Reilly, Nathan Cornally (0-2); Shane Ormsby (0-3), Matthew Ryan; Callum Rigney (1-0), [1-2]Luke Raeside; Donnacha Maguire, Luke McCabe (1-1), Gavin Pierce (0-3). Alex Sheerin, Peter Finch, Mohammed Mohammed, John Shaw, Ben McNamee and Billy Walshe.

Fógra: It was great to see Conor Heffernan togged out, exactly six months to the day of surgery to repair his cruciate ligament. Conor has shown extraordinary dedication to progress to this stage of his recovery. It didn’t happen by accident as Conor has spent four days a week in the gym almost since the day of his surgery. Conor is the kind of dedicated player that will ensure the club’s future.