ACL Div.1: Mullingar Shamrocks 3-9 Athlone 0-11

It was a gillet type of Friday evening in Athlone when Mullingar Shamrocks and the home team took the field with two valuable league points on offer. The victory virtually guarantees Shamrocks Div. 1 status for the 2020 season. Athlone started well and Ritchie Green pointed but the home side wasted a number of chances in the early stages. Ross Corroon had two fine points for Shamrocks, one from play and one from a free to send Shamrocks into a lead that was never subsequently lost. Dean Moore with a Gooch-Canavan style dummy created space and hit a beauty of a point off his left foot to extend the lead. Athlone pointed and then Micheál Curley thundered through the Athlone defence and created a goal scoring opportunity which Darren Keena finished with a bullet like shot past Paul Bannon in the Athlone goal. Dean Moore hit another stylish point and Ross Corroon kicked his third score after another great run forward by Marc Eivers, who had his best game yet in the senior's jersey. Daragh Daly won possession from the restart and found Brendan O'Reilly who surged through the Athlone defence to create the simplest of goal scoring opportunities which was gratefully accepted by Dónal O'Donoghue. Dean Moore pointed twice before Athlone responded with a point just on the stroke of half-time with Shamrocks leading by 2-7 to 0-4 despite playing against a strong wind. The match was effectively over at this stage and the Mullingar Shamrocks momentum was not sustained for the duration. Shane Allen (0-2) and Fergal Murray (0-1) scored three unanswered points after the interval before Dean Moore pointed again with Micheál Curley once again providing the final pass. A couple of Philly Shaw saves were also important at this stage. Ryan Gaffey kicked three points for Athlone to reduce the deficit (2-8 to 0-9). Dillon Matthews was introduced in the fifteenth minute and his first action was to blast the ball to the Athlone net for a typical Dillon Matthews finish. The chance was created by a superb Dean Moore pass to Micheál Curley who offloaded to Dillon on the run. Some of the patterns of play that were so important last year are beginning to resurface; on this occasion the final pass for all three goals were delivered by members of the halfback line. Micheál Curley is still surging forward and Brendan O'Reilly is displaying the type of form he showed last year prior to his unfortunate injury. Alan Cashman covered acres of ground and Mark Butler also impressed. Another Dean Moore completed the Shamrocks score sheet, this one a great long range pointed free from the best forward on view in Athlone.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Eddie Moore, Efe Siode, Mark Butler; Marc Eivers (Ryan Blundell), Micheál Curley, Brendan O'Reilly; Daragh Daly, Dónal O'Donoghue (1-0); Alan Cashman, David Gavin, Ross Corroon (0-3) [Trevor Keena]; Darren Keena (1-0), Dean Moore (0-6), Pearse Corroon (Dillon Matthews, 1-0).