Ten-man Town slip up in title race

St Peter's 2-0 Mullingar Town

(Jordan Carr 35 mins, Clive Harris 85 mins)

On Wednesday night in D'Alton Park Mullingar Town saw their chances of league glory take a huge dent with a devastating loss to close rivals St. Peter's, in what was an ill-tempered, foul ridden and card laden game.

Eight yellows and a red for Paul Reid and even manager Jacko McNamee indicates the level of frustration felt by the home side and indeed many of those cards were of the very soft variety, but it was on the pitch that Town were most frustrated. Time and again they failed to penetrate a resolute and well marshalled Peter's defence and chances were few and far between. When the home did get through they spurned those opportunities and as the game wore on, Peter's punished them accordingly. The opening goal was poorly conceded from a corner and the second came after the sending off and again following a corner that could have and should have been dealt with, but in truth the visitors probably just deserved that bit of luck on what was a disappointing night for Mullingar Town.

The opening 30 minutes were memorable merely for the amount of yellow cards shown with Mullingar Town's Paul Reid, David Dyer, Daragh Kiernan and Jason Charles in the book for really minor infringements. However, David Dyer and especially Nathan McCullagh had chances but both went astray and Peter's struck on 35 minutes: Nenad Lazics' cross pinged around the box and was added to by Johnny Kiernan before being eventually stabbed home by Jordan Carr and it was 1-0 to the visitors. Indeed, the same player could have doubled the advantage seconds later but missed a sitter.

Town went close before the break with Dyer heading off the crossbar from a Kiernan corner and Reid close with a similar header, but at the half-time break it was still St Peter's who led.

Town went on the offensive from the restart but again they were repelled time and again and lacked penetration. They had their best chance on 55 minutes when Kiernan slotted Nathan McCullagh in but his effort went agonisingly the wrong side of the post and moments later Paul Reid’s late challenge on the Peter's 'keeper resulted in a second yellow card, followed by a red. There was then a red card for manager McNamee for arguing as the game descended into farce and a clear handball from St. Peter's went totally unpunished.

That said Town raised the intensity and Tristan Finnane went very close to equalising after the move of the game saw him denied by Darcy Lawless in the Peter's goal. It was as good as it got for Town as the 10 men struggled and in the drive for an equaliser they were left open at the back. After another poorly defended corner where again the ball zipped around, it was Clive Harris who got the touch to score Peter's second and seal the result in essence.

Mullingar Town fought on resiliently until the bitter end but could not make any impression and the game petered out to its inevitable conclusion in front of a very disappointed home crowd.

Teams

Mullingar Town: David Sheahan, Jamie Loran, Daragh Kiernan, Alan Cashman, Jason Charles, Paul Reid, Liam Brennan, David Dyer, Nathan McCullagh, Tristan Finnane and Greg Rosicki. Subs: Sean Reid for Cashman (60 mins).

St. Peter's: Darcy Lawless, Niall Scullion, Adam Dowling, Danny McManus, Scott Delaney, Luke Kelly, Johnny Kiernan, Clive Harris, Gary Kelly, Jordan Carr, Nenad Lazic. Subs: Corey Jinks for Kiernan (H/T), Johnny Duffy for Lazic (55 mins), Mark Sherlock for Carr (87 mins), Adam O’Brien for Dowling (90 mins).

Referee: Ross Cole.