Committed effort brings Cup joy
On Saturday last Mullingar Athletic Under 14s travelled to Birr to take on Cloncollig in the Midland League Shield Final. For the first ten minutes of the game both teams looked evenly matched with Mullingar"s back four of Mark Fitzpatrick, James Pearce, Cormac Corroon and Paul Branagan dealing comfortably with anything that came their way.In midfield Ricky Scally who was having a terrific game made a strong challenge but unfortunately received a bad injury and had to be replaced by David Heffernan. As the game progressed Mullingar were playing good football and a good passing move found David Heffernan who dribbled past three players and kept his cool to put Mullingar one up. Cloncollig put pressure on the Mullingar goals for the next 10 minutes with a corner kick cleared of the line by Mark Fitzpatrick. When Mullingar got the ball out wide to Rory Daly and Azad Ali Mohammad they caused Cloncollig lost of problems.Up front Colin Darcy worked hard for the team keeping the Cloncollig defence on the back foot. Mullingar went in at half time one nil up and all to play for. Two changes were made at half time Mauro de Luce in defence and Gary Flanagan up front. Mullingar settled quickly in the second half with Dale Monaghan and Stewart Doyle commanding midfield and creating numerous chances. Gary Flanagan ceased on one of these with an excellent first touch rounding the defender and slotting home to give Mullingar some breathing space.Cloncollig pushed forward and only for the strong defending from James Pearce and Cormac Corroon and top class saves from Sean Corcoran cloncollig would have been back in the game. With cloncollig pushing forward Mullingar were getting their chance with Stewart Doyle Philip McBride and David Heffernan going close. With 10 min remaining Mullingar brought on Adam Duffy who controlled midfield till the end and saw Mullingar lift the cup.The management would like to congratulate the team for the fine effort over the season and the parents who assisted through out the season.