Westmeath Senior Football Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 4-14 The Downs, 2-10.

Mullingar Shamrocks moved closer to the knock-out stages of the championship with this comprehensive and unexpectedly comfortable victory against The Downs. In 2018 Mullingar Shamrocks were regarded as fortunate by many students of the game to defeat The Downs but on this occasion the young team in black and amber, short a number of key players, were a pale shadow of their 2018 edition and never looked likely to upset the reigning champions. Shamrocks produced their best form of the season and their 4-10 total represents the highest score recorded under the present team management.

Simon Quinn (he played even better than in the county final) opened the scoring in the second minute when he completed a move that began with a foul on Kieran Gavin. The fullback set Micheál Curley free to surge downfield, Daragh Daly took over and combined with Denis Corroon and Marc Eivers before Simon finished the move with a point. The Downs quickly equalised and in the seventh minute Adam Loughlin pointed The Downs into the lead. Another surge from Micheál Curley took him through The Downs defence before he transferred to Marc Eivers, making his first senior championship start. Marc arrived at pace and dinked the ball over the advancing Trevor Martin for the most sublime of goals (Any young man would sacrifice part of a Debs Ball to score a goal of this magnificence). Messi himself would be proud of this piece of skill, one that was a speciality of Michael O'Reilly back in the Golden Age of Shamrocks football. In the tenth minute Paddy Fagan landed a point to announce his return to active service after several months out through injury. Dónal O'Donoghue was responsible for much of the spadework for this score. Denis Corroon then split the Downs defence with a powerful run but his shot for goal rebounded off the post and was quickly moved downfield for a Dean Egerton point. The Downs won possession from the resultant restart and Dean Egerton goaled to restore their lead (1-3 to 1-2). Simon Quinn equalised before a Paddy Fagan pass released Denis Corroon who produced an outrageous piece of skill in the tightest of spaces to goal. The dummy shot that became a one step solo run created the essential room for Denis to manoeuvre the space for another piece of trickery and shoot to the net for one of the great goals. Joe Brolly may add a fifth to his list of four primary dummies: The Colm McFadde, The Half Mulligan, The Bernie Flynn and The Full Mulligan. The Denis Corroon Decoy (in the manner of Peter Canavan) can be added to the list but with a health warning that the move is only to be attempted by the most skilful of footballers. The offensive continued. A Philly Shaw restart was gathered by Killian Daly who found Darren Keena who pointed. A foul on Simon Quinn provided Denis with the opportunity to knock over a mundane score from the resultant free and this was followed by another Simon Quinn point. The half ended with points from Dean Egerton and Conor Coughlan to leave the half-time scoreboard reading 2-6 to 1-5 in favour of Shamrocks in a half that The Downs wasted a number of good scoring opportunities and ended the thirty minutes with eleven wides to their discredit.

On the resumption Kevin O'Sullivan pointed for The Downs (it might have been a goal) but hopes of a revival were killed with a superb Kieran Gavin interception deep in defence. Gavin found Paddy Fagan who split the The Downs defence with a great pass to Dónal O'Donoghue. Dónal's pass created the goal scoring opportunity for Dean Moore who blasted past Trevor Martin. Denis Corroon pointed following good work by Micheál Curley, the restart was collected by Simon Quinn and pointed; Denis Corroon added another and after eleven minutes Mullingar Shamrocks were well on their way to the winner's enclosure with a nine-point lead to their credit (3-9 to 1-6). Two minutes later it was all over when Shamrocks goaled for the fourth time. The move was initiated by Efe with his first touch after arriving on the field but owed much to the individual brilliance of Paddy Fagan. Fagan raced in from the right wing and unleashed an absolute rocket of a shot that almost ripped the netting from the stanchion. In his first game back not everything Paddy tried on the night worked out but his impact on this game and his influence on the team was substantial. Adam Loughlin and Dean Egerton pointed to reduce the deficit (4-9 to 1-8). Dean Moore then took centre stage and kicked three fine long range points, the first again began deep in defence with another Kieran Gavin interception and completed a long, slow and deliberate build-up. Adam Loughlin goaled and Philip Doherty pointed before Marc Eivers claimed his second score of the night, a point after Pearse Corroon broke free and created the opportunity with a long solo run. The final score of the evening belonged to Denis Corroon, this time one of Denis's outside of the boot specialities. It was a fitting conclusion to what was an extraordinary exhibition of athleticism and artistry from one of the great football purists playing the game today. A fine display then by Shamrocks, but nothing is guaranteed at this stage. We still have to secure a play-off place but on a night when we scored 4-13 from play and kicked just five wides there was plenty of positive elements to the evening.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Eddie Moore (Dillon Matthews), Kieran Gavin (Mark Butler), Aaron Purcell (Efe Siode); Killian Daly, Michael Curley, Brendan O'Reilly; Denis Corroon (1-4), Paddy Fagan (Pearse Corroon) [1-1]; Darren Keena [0-1] (Billy Flynn), Dónal O’Donoghue, Marc Eivers (1-1); Simon Quinn (0-4), Dean Moore (1-3), Daragh Daly.