Good weekend for Athletic Senior Teams

Mullingar Athletic 7Clara Town 2On a cold crisp Saturday night at Gainstown, Mullingar Athletic AFC senior team entertained Clara Town FC for a home CCFL Senior League game. Mullingar were without the services of influential midfielder Kevin (Haji) Keegan with an ankle injury, and team captain Mark Syron who had to withdraw from due to a family commitment. The experienced Stephen Markey was drafted into the squad and replaced Mark Syron at centre half.Athletic started brightly and with some clean crisp passing their first half performance was as good as their recent excellent performance away to St. Peters in the Leinster Junior Cup and eventually yielded a decent three goal lead going into half time.Mullingar went ahead on five minutes when a Kevin Dunleavy cross from the right was neatly finished by Michael Fadian from eight yards. Mullingar went close, on fifteen minutes, to making it two when Michael Fadian, who is usually clinical on front of goal's headed narrowly wide from a Claudio Nardone right wing cross. Athletic were causing all sorts of problems down the left hand side where Jimmy McEntee at left full and Dara Kiernan's silky skills and general ball retention was a frustration for the Clara Town midfield.At the heart of the Mullingar defence Markey and in particular David Masterson was having a fine game snuffing out any real threat from the experienced Clara centre forward Gary Devine. However on twenty five minutes Mullingar goalkeeper Joe Martin had be out quickly to take a ball at the feet of Devine who had raced on to a long ball. Martin who has been in wonderful form of late took the ball cleanly but did catch a bad blow to the head in the collision with the centre forward.With thirty minutes gone on the clock the large crowd in attendance on the night may have been forgiven for thinking that this was going to be a repeat of last weeks home game against Portlaoise where Mullingar following an early goal, dominated the game from start to finish but lost by a 1-2 scoreline. Their fears however were allayed on thirty five minutes when Fadian returned the favour to Dunleavy when his angled run across the Clara box seen him collect a good pass from Kiernan and Fadian squared the ball for Dunleavy to tap in from six yards. The third Athletic goal came on the stroke of half time when a Dara Kiernan corner was headed back across goals by David Masterson for Michael Fadian to head home his second goal of the night.With a three goal cushion going into the second half Mullingar were always going to find it difficult to maintain the same tempo that resulted in obtaining that lead, however no one could have planned the next twenty five minutes. Some lack luster defending on fifty minutes allowed Gary Devine space to stab a low drive past Mullingar 'keeper Joe Martin and five minutes later the Clara men were thrown a lifeline when the same player capitalised from a corner to take the score to three goals to two. One might have expected the shell shocked Mullingar side to fall back and the Clara men to press for the equaliser. However within ten minutes Athletic were back in a three goal lead.Mullingar's fourth goal came on sixty five minutes when a Michael Fadian headed effort came crashing off the crossbar and was gallantly headed home by Brother Stephen who had just come on as a replacement for the injured Dunleavy.Five minutes later a fine run down the right by Claudio Nardone ended in an excellent cross to the six yard area where that man again Michael Fadian had timed his run perfectly to shoot past the keeper from eight yards to seal his hat trick for the night and indeed his eighteenth goal of the season for the club.With Mullingar back in a three goal lead Tony Dunne was introduced to midfield to replace Dalibor Pesic who had got through a good nights work. On eighty minutes Dunne picked up a neat pass from fellow midfielder Matthews in a position left of the eighteen yard box. Dunne took the ball past the Clara right full and as the 'keeper advanced Dunne neatly placed the ball past his advance on the near angle to the net for number six. As the game entered injury time Mullingar midfielder Enda Matthews fired a shot at the Clara goals when it looked as if he was going to cross.The Clara 'keeper was taking a little by surprise by Matthews's effort and even though he got a hand to the effort, he could not keep the ball out.Apart from a ten minute spell just after the break this was one of Mullingar's best performance of the season and will somewhat ease the pain to their two recent defeats to St. Peters FC in the Leinster Junior Cup on penalties and last weeks defeat to Portlaoise, both games which they should have won comprehensively.Team: Joe Martin, Ollie McNamee, David Masterson, Steve Markey, Jimmy McEntee, Dara Kiernan, Enda Matthews, Dalibor Pesic, Claudio Nardone, Michael Fadian, Kevin Dunleavy. Subs: Stephen Fadian for Kevin Dunleavy, Tony Dunne for Dalibor Pescic, Kevin Campbell (not used).ScorersMullingar:M. Fadian 3, K. Dunleavy,S. Fadian, T. Dunne,E. MatthewsClara:G. Devine 2