Westmeath Junior Football Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-11 The Downs 0-14
Our interests in the 2018 junior championship was ended with this draw against The Downs in Springfield on Thursday night. The Downs pointed in the opening minute and established a lead that they maintained until the interval. Shamrocks equalising point scored by Patrick Fagan was a bit special in its creation. Ross Corroon's massive kick-out was fielded by Fagan who pointed. The Downs added a second point but this advantage was cancelled by a Gary Corroon pointed free. Patrick Fagan (0-2), Pádraig McKenna (0-2), and Shane Colleary also had first half points; two of these were the direct result of massive Ross Corroon restarts. Matt Gavin at centre-forward and Shane Carroll were prominent in the scoring stakes for The Downs who finished the half ahead by the minimum (0-8 to 0-7).
Points from Gary Corroon and Patrick Fagan after the interval established a Shamrocks lead but The Downs responded and scored five points without a reply (0-13 to 0-9). With championship elimination on the line, Shamrocks staged a late great response that began when Shane Colleary blasted to the net from a tight angle (someone mentioned a goal against Wexford in the Leinster championship of 2004). James Grogan thundered forward and created an opening for Patrick Fagan to score his fifth point of the evening and level the match (0-13 to 1-10). A great play by Billy Flynn earned a 40 metre 'must score' free for Shamrocks and Ross Corroon (now free of his goalkeeping duties) kicked Shamrocks ahead with the match drifting towards injury time. Unfortunately for Shamrocks, Ciaran Nolan had the last say and his point from play secured the draw that was required on the night for The Downs to qualify for the knock-out stages of the championship.
Mullingar Shamrocks: Ross Corroon (0-1), Eamonn Breslin, Mark Butler, Cormac Murphy; Pearse Corroon, James Grogan, Marc Eivers; Conor Twomey and Patrick Fagan (0-5); Nathan Smyth [Ryan Blundell], Gary Corroon (0-2)[Adam Smyth], Neil Hannigan [Davy Coyne]; Pádraig McKenna (0-2), Shane Colleary (1-1), Billy Flynn.
