ACL Div. 1: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-5 St Loman’s 0-15

There was never going to be any other result to this ACL Div.1 match; this was always likely to happen when the original round of league fixtures were suddenly cancelled several weeks back.  With the wear and tear from the previous night’s under-21 football championship match, commitments to Oliver Plunket’s in the Leinster Club championship (congrats on a superb win), the continued wound licking from a disappointing championship campaign and a variety of other commitments, Shamrocks struggled to field a team.

The men on the field did well to contain the scoreline to respectable proportions and for a brief spell during the second-half hopes of a shock victory fluttered briefly.  St Loman’s never really extended themselves during the first-half as they warmed-up for the Leinster championship campaign and by half-time eased to a 0-7 to 0-1 lead. Shamrocks lone point came from Kieran Gavin who was making his final appearance in the Shamrocks colours for some time as he departs on Tuesday on a six-month tour of Central and South America.

Both sides traded points after the interval with Denis (0-2) and Ross Corroon (playing in his third match in less than 24 hours and playing well in all three. Young players such as Ross are very lucky the GAA places such emphasis on Player Welfare!). A long delivery from Denis Corroon was superbly fielded and dispatched to the St Loman’s net by Donal O’Donoghue and the possibility of a Shamrocks victory briefly surfaced. Points from John Heslin (0-3 of at least 0-8 scored on the night), Paul Sherry and a great piece of combined play from the Croghan-Rhode axis of Ken Casey and Ross Hickey quickly extinguished these thoughts. Denis Corroon scored Shamrocks final point when he landed a Maurice Fitzgerald-type special delivery free kick; a difficult piece of skill sublimely executed on this occasion.

Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; James Grogan, Eddie Moore, Keith Moore; Ross Corroon (0-1), Kieran Gavin (0-1), Pearse Corroon; Daragh Daly and Donal O’Donoghue (1-0); Sam Gilmartin (Seanie Daly) Denis Corroon (0-3),Simon Quinn: Conor Moore (Kenny O’Reilly), Anthony Clinton (Sam Gilmartin), Darren Keena.