Clarke’s Bar Junior I Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-8 The Downs 0-9

Game 1 of championship weekend concluded with Shamrocks finishing two points ahead of The Downs to preserve their unbeaten record and secure a place in the knock-out stages of the Clarke’s Bar Junior I championship.

Played in miserable conditions this was a well-contested and decent game of football. (In the curtain raiser The Downs finished ahead of Shamrocks on a 5-7 to 1-6 scoreline after Shamrocks led by 1-3 to 1-1 at the interval in the Under-13 League). In the junior match, The Downs with wind advantage carved out an 0-7 to 0-4 interval lead with Ross Corroon (a mark and a well struck free into the wind), Shane Ormsby and Trevor Keena, who finished a great combined move, contributed the Shamrocks total.

Shamrocks began the second half with Philly Shaw guarding the net and Seán Hynes moving to an outfield post. Philly was making his seasonal debut and it was great to see the man who has been playing for Shamrocks since the early 2000s back in action. It was a stress-free return as Shamrocks defended in numbers and with great discipline and patience for the final twenty minutes to limit The Downs scoring opportunities to the minimum. Eddie Moore led the resistance in exceptional fashion. A few minutes of magic from the Keena brothers produced the winning scores in the opening ten minutes of the half. Darren began the trend with a point from a mark; Trevor responded with two exceptional points: the first ‘a thing of beauty’ and the second ‘some point’ according to the boys in the dugout. These scores brought the sides level (0-7 each). Darren Keena pointed again to edge Shamrocks ahead. A superb one-handed catch and carry by Shane Ormsby presented Darren with a goal scoring opportunity and the corner forward volleyed to the net in a manner that would have satisfied the third Keena brother who practises his trade as a professional footballer in England with Cheltenham Town. This proved to be Shamrocks’ final score but great defending limited The Downs to just two points scored by Ben Harte and Óisin Loughlin for the remainder of the hour.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Sean Hynes (Nathan Smyth); Eamonn Breslin, Matthew Siode, Rory Hickey; Pearse Corroon, Eddie Moore, Dylan Carey; Shane Ormsby (0-1), James Larkin; Neil Hannigan, Trevor Keena (0-3), Ciaran Kiernan (Philly Shaw); Darren Keena (1-2), Ross Corroon (0-2), David Culkin (Ciaran Kiernan).