Clarke’s Bar Junior Football I Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 0-7 St Loman’s 0-8

Although both clubs had already qualified for the knock-out stages of the championship the local derby element ensured that this fixture remained competitive until Paul McGaughey’s final whistle. Both teams defended in depth so scoring was at a premium.

St Loman’s dominated the early exchanges but faulty shooting kept their score sheet blank. Shamrocks raised the first flag when Luke McCabe swung over a free with his left boot. Eoghan O’Keeffe equalised and we were then treated to four magnificent long range points from Trevor Keena, two from play and two from free kicks. The two from play wouldn’t be found in any coaches manual and certainly no modern coach would even dream of allowing an attacker to shoot from over 60 meters from goal. Trevor did and two of the highest spectacular points imaginable boomed over the crossbar. The two successful free kicks were replica copies of the efforts from play. Danno Fitzsimons saved well from Dylan Carey. St Loman’s twice drew level. David Morgan who had a huge battle with Matthew Siode, kicked two points – one from a free and one from a mark. Shamrocks reached the interval 0-5 to 0-3 in the lead.

Luke McCabe extended Shamrocks lead from the restart with another good pointed free but David Morgan responded with two pointed frees to narrow the deficit. A brilliant Philly Shaw save preserved the lead before Trevor Keena added another pointed free to his evening’s score collection. David Morgan pointed his fourth free of the evening, a created by a Paddy Dowdall surge up-field and the infraction earned Pearse Corroon a black card. A couple of minutes later a difference of opinion between Paddy Dowdall and Eddie Moore, two men with almost a century of play between them, earned both a yellow card. Paul Simon’s ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’ might have been composed as an anthem for these two great warriors, playing with the same spirit and determination as they did when they began their careers back in the last century. Great to see. David Morgan from play equalised and Seanaí Bracken kicked what transpired to be the winning score. Shamrocks had chances to equalize but poor decision making didn’t help the situation in the final minutes.

However, there were plenty of positives from this outing especially the contribution from our younger players who have only recently graduated to adult level completion, Nathan Cornally, Dylan Carey, Shane Ormsby, Ciaran Kiernan, Matthew Ryan and Luke McCabe.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw (Sean Óg Hynes); Eamon Breslin, Matthew Siode, Nathan Cornally; Pearse Corroon, Eddie Moore, Dylan Carey; Shane Ormsby, Ciaran Kiernan; Neill Hannigan, Trevor Keena (0-5), James Larkin; Luke McCabe (0-2), Darren Keena (Matthew Ryan), Davy Culkin (Andrew Shaw).