Minor Football Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 2-11 Killucan 2-10.

This was a game of four quarters without the water break; the first and last were dominated by Shamrocks, the middle two by Killucan who can consider themselves unlucky not to have at least shared the points. Shamrocks, well short of their best form, held a 2-1 to 0-2 lead after fifteen minutes thanks to the scoring exploits of Alex Sheerin who was responsible for the team total. A long range shot from Killucan wing-back Joseph Mulvaney that dropped into the Shamrocks net gave Killucan a lifeline and began their 30 minutes or so of dominance. Ben McNamee and Callum Rigney added points to the Shamrocks total, Killucan responded likewise and responded to Callum’s point by taking the ball the length of the field from the restart with a move that was only stopped by the concession of a penalty which was dispatched to the net by Conor Leech. A Ryan Kelly pointed free brought the sides level at 2-4 each at the interval.

Killucan moved 0-4 ahead in the third quarter with pointed frees from Jayden Hill (0-2) and two more from wing-back Mulvaney. After exactly 45 minutes Conor Heffernan pointed, a score that proved to be the first of six unanswered points by Shamrocks – three by Conor and one each from Padraig Casey, Callum Rigney and Gavin Pierce. Two Jayden Hill points brought the sides level before an episode of combined play was cleverly finished by Padraig Casey, who flicked the ball over the crossbar for what transpired to be the most important score of the evening – the winning one.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Matas Puida; Ben Sheerin (Hugh O’Sullivan Sexton), Ty Masterson, Adam Glynn; James Glynn, Peter Finch, Ben McNamee (0-1); Callum Rigney Clyne (0-2), Donnacha Maguire (Gavin Pierce, 0-1); Paul Keating, Conor Heffernan (0-3), Matthew Shaw (Mohammed Mohammed); Padraig Casey (0-2), Ryan Kelly (0-1), Alex Sheerin (2-1).