Reid’s goal proves decisive in narrow victory for Athlone

Athlone 1-11 Milltownpass 1-8

Gerry Buckley

A rapid-fire hat-trick of points in the closing stages enabled Athlone to edge out an understrength Milltownpass outfit in a keenly-contested Division 2 final in TEG Cusack Park last Sunday afternoon, in which both sides finished with 14 men.

Both these teams had already secured promotion to Division 1 for next year, but it was Athlone who clinched the league title.

Milltownpass were unable to convert a couple of early half-chances before their opponents nudged ahead with a quickfire brace from Conor Rushe (with the outside of his boot) and Benny Martin (following the resultant misdirected kickout).

Eoghan Gallagher halved the deficit in the ninth minute with a great point at the end of a patient move. Two minutes later, his colleague Dara O’Connor was black-carded. A converted ‘45’ by Kieran Colclough and a neat point from centre half back Diarmuid Martin had the Shannonsiders ahead by 0-4 to 0-1 with a quarter of an hour on the clock.

Milltownpass equalized in the 17th minute, former Westmeath player Shane Corcoran finding the net via the butt of the post after a long solo run goalward.

Liam Gorman nudged David Martin’s troops ahead for the first time before a point exchange between James Finlass and Noel O’Reilly (a tricky free). The latter player slotted over an even trickier free in the 24th minute, but his side was dealt a blow some three minutes later when O’Connor picked up a second yellow card, and was duly dismissed.

A fisted point under pressure from Gorman left Milltownpass ahead by 1-5 to 0-5 at the interval.

Remarkably, former inter-county midfielder John Stapleton picked up his second yellow card of the contest a mere 15 seconds after the throw-in, and with it Athlone’s numerical advantage disappeared. However, they made little of this setback, with a Colclough free preceding a well-worked goal in the 38th minute when substitute Daniel Reid slapped the ball to the net following good work by Shane Allen and Colclough.

Eoin Jordan’s charges then tagged on points from the boots of Colclough (a retaken free) and Allen (after a clever free), to lead by 1-8 to 1-5 at the end of the third quarter.

Veteran sub Andy Devine untypically missed a glorious goal chance for the men in white and black in the 48th minute, but successful frees by O’Reilly (from the ground) and Devine (from his hands, just outside the large parallelogram) had the deficit down to the bare minimum by the 54th minute.

The pale blue and white-clad team then pounced for three match-winning points in as many minutes courtesy of Cillian Lynn, and subs Matt Scally and Reid. Devine’s routine free conversion in added-time left a goal between the teams, but Corcoran was denied a second green flag by a good save from Darren Costello in the last action of an enjoyable match.

After the match, Frank Mescall, chairman of the Westmeath County Committee, presented the cup to the winning captain, Shane Allen.

Man of the match: Shane Allen (Athlone). The winning skipper led by example from wing-back. Daniel Reid made a huge contribution from the bench by scoring 1-1.

Scorers – Athlone: D Reid 1-1, K Colclough 0-3 (2f, 1‘45’), J Finlass, S Allen, D Martin, C Rushe, C Lynn, B Martin, M Scally 0-1 each. Milltownpass: S Corcoran 1-0, N O’Reilly 0-3 (3f), L Gorman, A Devine (2f) 0-2 each, E Gallagher 0-1.

Athlone: Darren Costello; Paddy Ryan, James Finlass, Owen McNamara; Shane Allen, Diarmuid Martin, Josh Kenny; John Stapleton, Ben Killian; Kieran Colclough, Eamon Martin, Conor Rushe; Cillian Lynn, Benny Martin, Sean Dowd. Subs used: Daniel Reid for Rushe (inj., 11), Matt Scally for Dowd (50), John Connellan for B Martin (54), Darren Magee for Connellan (inj., 54), Ryan Gaffney for Lynn (60+3).

Milltownpass: Wayne Boyce; Michael McCormack, Liam O’Reilly, Niall Manning; David Manning, Noel O’Reilly, Dara O’Connor; Liam Gorman, Shane Corcoran; Oisín Coogan, Fintan O’Reilly, Paul O’Reilly; Robert Cleary, Tony Loftus, Eoghan Gallagher. Subs used: Andy Devine for Coogan (37), Gavin Glennon for F O’Reilly (44), David Devine for Gallagher (57).

Ref: Alan Coyne (Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall).