Penalty heartbreak for Town Over 35s after eight-goal thriller
Leinster Football Association Over 35s Cup Quarter-Final: Mullingar Town 4, Templeogue Utd 4 (Templeogue Utd win 5-4 on penalties)
Gerry Buckley reports
There was no shortage of goals or drama in Dalton Park last Saturday evening, Templeogue Utd surviving what seemed like two harsh calls for retakes after ‘misses’ by the home side in a penalty shootout to eventually edge past Mullingar Town, thereby qualifying for the penultimate round of the LFA Over 35s cup.
The Town opened the scoring with exactly a minute elapsed, a great right-wing free from Mickey Loran deflecting off the shoulder of Michael Fadian, with the Dubliners’ defence seemingly blinded by the sun, for a soft goal.
A dozen minutes later, a blatant foul on Johnny Keegan at the end of a counterattack presented Kevin Keegan with a penalty kick, and he took the opportunity from the spot with aplomb to double his side’s advantage.
In the 17th minute, the side in all-red halved the deficit when a teasing cross by Gerry Bambrick picked out Paul Ellis who duly controlled the ball and calmly flashed it past Adrian Rapacki in an instant.
The goals continued to come thick and fast, and the home team went 3-1 ahead in the 22nd minute, a fine cross by left-back Mark Brady teeing up Fadian for a deft flick past David Frewen.
With five minutes of normal time to go in the first moiety – the game was 40 minutes-a-side – Bambrick reduced the gap again to the bare minimum with a great shot from outside the box to the bottom of the net. It remained 3-2 to the Mullingar men at the interval.
Just four minutes after play resumed, Mark Leech chased a hopeful punt forward and cleverly chipped Rapacki for the equaliser.
In the 66th minute, Johnny Keegan was again adjudged to have been impeded in the opposition penalty area – the foul seemed less clear-cut than had been the case in the first half. Sub Stephen Daly’s spot-kick was saved, but he was on hand to fire home the rebound.
In the 73rd minute, Leech scored his second opportunist goal, this time with a header after the red and black-clad defenders failed to clear their lines. It was 4-4 at full-time and the game went straight to a penalty shootout.
Johnny Keegan's opening penalty was well saved, but all other nine kicks were scored. In the case of the losers’ second and fourth, Kevin Keegan and sub Emerson Farrelly respectively seemed fortunate to be given second kicks after Frewen ‘saved’ their original efforts. The latter was incensed and was yellow-carded for his protests. Ultimately, Stan Fagan’s successful kick decided the outcome.
Mullingar Town: Adrian Rapacki, Nigel Graham, Mark Brady, Jason McGrath, Niall Whitney, Mickey Loran, Ed Cummins, Kevin Keegan, Johnny Keegan, Michael Fadian, Keith McAdden. Subs used: David Masterson for Whitney (27), Stephen Daly for Cummins (27), Steven Fadian for McAdden (55), Emerson Farrelly for M Fadian (57), Stephen Markey for Graham (63).
Templeogue Utd: David Frewen, Barry Leech, Gavin Kenny, Edward Orr, Leigh Caffrey, Neil Doyle, Stan Fagan, Gavin Quinn, Mark Leech, Gerry Bambrick, Paul Ellis. Subs used: Robbie Collins for Quinn (h-t), Declan O’Connor for B Leech (h-t), Gavin Jones for Doyle (h-t), Graham Gaughran for Kenny (60).
Ref: Martin Hatchett.
Scorers: Mullingar Town 4 – M Fadian [2] (1, 22), K Keegan (pen, 13), S Daly (66); Templeogue Utd 4 – P Ellis (17), G Bambrick (35), M Leech [2] (44, 73).
Penalty shootout: Mullingar Town 4 – J Keegan (saved), K Keegan, S Daly, E Farrelly and J McGrath (all scored); Templeogue Utd 5 – G Bambrick, P Ellis, D O’Connor, R Collins and S Fagan (all scored).