Westmeath Senior Football Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 2-19 Tyrrellspass 0-10

A comprehensive victory over injury ravaged Tyrrellspass whose injury list grew even more when Denis Glennon suffered a serious injury mid-way through the second half. We wish Denis, a great servant of Tyrrellspass and Westmeath football a speedy recovery. This victory qualified Mullingar Shamrocks for a quarter-final match with Coralstown-Kinnegad with the winners facing Garrycastle. Shamrocks began impressively and Dean Moore had the ball in the Tyrrellspass net in the opening minute but this was disallowed after referee Keith O'Brien consulted with his umpires. The decision was correct even if the method of reaching the decision might have been a bit unorthodox. A Denis Corroon '45' opened the scoring before Kieran Geraghty and Nigel Harte kicked Tyrrellspass into the lead with points. Dean Moore equalised when finishing a move that began all the way back with Philly. A Paddy Fagan run ended with a foul on the midfielder and Denis Corroon did the rest. Paddy added a point himself and then galloped through to create a point-scoring opportunity for Darren Keena who added to Shamrocks lead. Brendan O'Reilly, showing a lot of last year's form, won the resultant kick-out and delivered to Dean Moore who pointed. A minute later Dónal O'Donoghue was at the end of a defence splitting move and he blasted to the Tyrrellspass net. Good use of the advantage rule by referee O'Brien was worthy of note. After fifteen minutes Mullingar Shamrocks were ahead by 1-6 to 0-2. Darren Quinn and Kieran Geraghty pointed frees to reduce the deficit; these scores were balanced by points from Denis Corroon and Micheál Curley both finished after moves that involved several passes as Shamrocks counter-attacked crisply. Despite the quality of these scores there was also more than an acceptable number of wrong choices in the hasty shooting department mainly by men who feel the need to impress the wise men on the sideline. This can be counterproductive. Denis Corroon pointed again after the two young boys Marc Eivers and Tye Adamson combined to create the chance. The final point of the half was scored by Denis Corroon from a 30 metre free close to the stand sideline. The outside of the right boot effort curled majestically inside the post: 'Jesus, Christ Almighty' the man beside me said, 'That's the best point I ever saw'. And it probably was. Half-time: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-10 Tyrrellspass 0-4.

Darren Quinn pointed a 45 on the restart and then brilliantly turned a Denis Corroon shot over the crossbar. Paddy Fagan gathered from the restart and pointed so too did Adam Flanagan in the sixth minute as the teams shared four points in the first four minutes. Marc Eivers and Quinn from a free exchanged points before an accidental injury to Denis Glennon halted the play for a long spell as the ambulance was called and we watched a scene that we never want to see at a sporting occasion as Denis was stretchered aboard. During the injury break word filtered through that Garrycastle had shipped a heavy defeat to St Loman's and the possibility of a semi-final place became a target over the final eighteen minutes with Shamrocks leading 1-13 to 0-7 on the resumption. A Kieran Geraghty free added to the Tyrrellspass total before Dean Moore scored one of the points of the night. Dean collected the ball deep inside his own half and ended a long solo run with a great long range point kicked off the outside of his boot running at pace (All this really did happen). Kieran Geraghty pointed for Tyrrellspass (1-14 to 0-9), Dean Moore pointed after another Paddy Fagan run and then Paddy added one himself as did Ben Gavin for Tyrrellspass (1-16 to 0-10). Paddy Joyce, Paddy Fagan and Dean added points before Efe Siode produced another bit of his football magic to blast to the Tyrrellspass net. There was time for one more attack but it ended scoreless and the race to the semi-final ended two points short. Nevertheless, it was a good positive display and it is a long time since we scored nineteen points in a championship match.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Eddie Moore (Dillon Matthews), Kieran Gavin, Billy Flynn; Killian Daly, Micheál Curley (0-1), Brendan O'Reilly (Efe Siode 1-0); Denis Corroon (0-6), Patrick Fagan [0-4] (Pearse Corroon); Tye Adamson (Paddy Joyce 0-1), Dónal O’Donoghue (1-0), Marc Eivers (0-1) [Aaron Purcell]; Darren Keena [0-1] (Trevor Keena), Dean Moore (0-5), Daragh Daly.

Scoring Difference etc ...

The calculators were whizzing in the final twenty minutes of our match with Tyrrellspass as calculations were made as to what was needed to qualify for the semi-final. The general belief was that we came up a point short. But the general belief this time was incorrect. Three teams finished on 8 points after beating each other on the way through the group. When this happens the head-to-head results are no longer applicable. Scoring difference then counts and if this is level the 'highest total score for' operates. As a result St Loman's top the group with a score difference of +34 (110-76); Garrycastle finish second with a difference of + 21 (90-69), one point ahead of ourselves with a difference of + 20 (88-68). However had we scored one more point we would have had a scoring difference of +21 but Garrycastle would still have qualified for the semi-final with their 90 points. We needed 2 more points for a semi-final place. This is it (I think!). The stage is set for an interesting conclusion to the championship and there will be surprises along the way. It is up to ourselves to make sure we are not involved.