Westmeath Minor Football Semi-final: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-7 Tubberclare 1-8.

A good start is half the battle it is said and, on this occasion, Tubberclare burst from the traps and after 9 minutes had scored five unanswered points. A replica of what happened when the two sides met earlier in the league stages of the championship when Shamrocks did the early scoring and won convincingly. Knock-out football, however, is different. Gavin Pierce opened the scoring for Shamrocks when his shot was helped over the crossbar by Kalim Blessing, the Tubberclare keeper. This was in the seventeenth minute. A sixth Tubberclare point restored the five-point advantage after almost twenty minutes of play.

Mullingar Shamrocks responded in the final ten minutes of the half with some great combination football and movement and points by Shane Ormsby, Matthew Ryan, Luke McCabe and Callum Rigney reduced the deficit to the minimum at the interval. In the middle of this scoring sequence, a brilliant save by Eoin Doran ensured that the momentum remained uninterrupted. Little things are also important (Remember Giovanni Trappatoni’s philosophy) and a simple tap over free missed at this stage proved to be significant at the final count but this wasn’t the only simple chance missed by both teams.

Shamrocks continued to dominate after the restart, but this was not reflected on the scoreboard thanks mainly to good Tubberclare defending. A point by Riano levelled the match but we failed to drive on and a penalty converted by Daire O’Connor proved to be the vital score of the half. A Gavin Pierce point reduced the deficit but Danny Reid’s fourth point of the afternoon balanced Gavin’s effort. At this stage Shane Ormsby, who gave an exhibition of high fielding and every other skill in Gaelic football, was totally dominant and a great run by the midfielder ended with his shot crashing off the post for what would have been a certain goal. Kalim Blessing, the Tubberclare keeper, saved brilliantly on two occasions and the goalpost once again foiled Shamrocks. Tubberclare maintained their composure and Danny Reid pointed again and Tom Bourke pointed from play to extend the home club’s lead to five points (1-9 to 0-7). A second yellow saw Bourke depart with eight minutes of normal time remaining.

Shamrocks poured forward and with William O’Reilly cleaning-up across the half-back line and breaking forward with ferocious intent, Shamrocks moved Shane Ormsby to full-forward. Route 1 became the preferred approach in the final minutes and paid off when Shane called a superb mark close to the 20-metre line. Ormsby blasted to the net to score what might have been the first goal from a mark in Westmeath football. A brilliant goal and Riano, who also played superbly, added a point but unfortunately in the final frantic minutes the Shamrock boys were unable to manufacture the equalising point.

The question is often asked nowadays What does a good Gaelic football match look like? This game could be used as exhibit A. Skill in abundance, some magnificent high fielding especially by Shane Ormsby, good scores, bad misses, great saves and some ferocious tackles with the momentum of the game maintained by the no nonsense and consistent refereeing by Pat Fox.

We also saw what a well conducted sideline looks like and both sets of mentors deserve to be commended on their detached approach to the task in hand and went about their business without any interaction with each other or the referee.

This group of Shamrocks players have given huge commitment especially in the last 3 years but have suffered narrow defeats at the semi-final stage each time. The players gave their all on Saturday evening and just came up short. The away dressing room was a desolate place in the game’s aftermath and Paul Christie and Niall O’ Brien’s words certainly hit the right note and were well received.

Paul, Niall, Seamus and Micheál are thanked for their commitment to this group of players whose day will come.

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