ACL Div.3: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-8 Bunbrosna 0-9.

A game of many positives for Shamrocks: Mark Flynn returned to active service after over a year on the sideline recovering from a back injury; Brendan O’Reilly was back from a year spent in the Australian Outback and signalled his return with a fine point early in the first half; Dylan Franzoni excelled at corner-back; Trevor Keena is looking sharper with every game and is fast regaining the form that made him an outstanding minor; our discipline, especially in the tackle, was excellent in a match that developed a feisty last quarter. Shamrocks shot too many wides and dropped too many shots in to the goalkeeper but the overall performance was very good and the final result for this team that mixes youth and experience was a well-deserved victory that preserved our unbeaten record in this division.

Mullingar Shamrocks held an interval lead of 0-5 to 0-2 with points from John and Brendan O’Reilly, Nathan Cornally and Luke McCabe (0-2). An early second half goal from Trevor Keena extended the lead but two points from Bunbrosna kept their hopes alive. Andrew Shaw and Trevor pointed, Bunbrosna were reduced to fourteen players but took the game to Shamrocks as Conor Newman and Garvin Dolan hit spectacular points to reduce the deficit to the minimum. A great run by Brendan O’Reilly released Trevor Keena who pointed. In one final Bunbrosna’s attack search for a match winning goal was foiled when a blasted 14-metre free was blocked and saved with Mullingar Shamrocks leading by 1-8 to 0-9 when Jim Rock blew the final whistle.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Nathan Smyth; Dylan Franzoni, Matthew Siode (Conor O'Brien), Mark Flynn; Brendan O’Reilly (0-1), Donal O’Donoghue (John O’Reilly), Niall Hardiman; Shane Ormsby, James Larkin: John O’Reilly (0-1) [Conor Kelly] [Gary Corroon – blood sub for Conor], Trevor Keena (1-2), Eddie Moore; Nathan Cornally (0-1)[Andrew Shaw 0-1], Conor O’Brien (David Culkin) and Luke McCabe (0-2).