ACL Div.1: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-8 St Loman's 1-12.

This meeting of the county champions and the beaten county finalists not surprisingly failed to reach the height of the historic October county final. Nevertheless a lot of good football was on offer and some excellent team and individual scores were recorded by both teams. St Loman's perhaps were the team with the greater incentive and were fully deserving of their four point victory after leading by 1-5 to 0-5 at the interval in what was a perfect evening for Gaelic football. Dean Moore and Paul Whelehan exchanged pointed frees in the opening minutes before Dean added two more superb points from play, the latter of these involved a half -Mugsy dummy as Joe Brolly might say. A Paul Whelehan free and a really good point from Kelvin Reilly levelled matters in the fifteenth minute. St Loman's used the occasion to introduce their two new signings Paul Whelehan from Meath and Stephen Gallagher from Mayo to the joys of playing football in Springfield and it was the latter who landed the crucial goal of the half when he was on hand to finish to the net in the eighteenth minute. Sean Lancaster and the influential Sam McCartan added points before a massive Tye Adamson free from miles out on the dressing room sideline reduced the deficit. A more routine Dean Moore completed the interval tally.

Shamrocks flew from the traps from the restart and a Jordan Warde goal levelled matters from the throw-in. Dean Moore gained possession, passed to the breaking Brendan O'Reilly who carried the ball forward before releasing to Jordan who crashed the ball past Jason Daly. From the kick-out Micheál Curley broke forward before passing to Jordan who pointed Shamrocks ahead. St Loman's responded with another pointed free from Whelehan. A Tye Adamson point added to the Shamrocks lead; Tye's shot was good but the pass from Dónal O'Donoghue was sublime. Paddy Fagan was next on the score sheet when he hit a fine long range point in the tenth minute. Unfortunately, from the Shamrocks perspective this proved to be the last score of the evening. A brilliant Philly Shaw save denied St Loman's. At this stage Shamrocks starting fullback line had been replaced as Eddie Moore was the recipient of a black card just before the interval; Kieran Gavin and Aaron Purcell were forced out by injuries. Two Paul Whelehan points in the fifteenth and seventeenth minutes levelled matters before T. J. Cox emerged as the St Loman's match winner with three superb points. David Windsor also pointed to secure the league points for St Loman's for whom the Tipperary player Stephen Ryan was an impressive second half replacement for Stephen Gallagher. An interesting dress rehearsal for the championship.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Phillip Shaw; Eddie Moore (Mark Eivers -black card), Kieran Gavin (Mark Butler), Aaron Purcell (Billy Flynn); Michael Curley, David Gavin; Brendan O'Reilly; Darragh Daly, Paddy Fagan (0-1); Alan Cashman (Dillon Matthews), Dónal O’Donoghue, Tye Adamson (0-2); Pearse Corroon (Keith Moore), Dean Moore (0-4), Jordan Warde (1-1).