Seven goals by superior Shamrocks sink Killucan

Mullingar Shamrocks 7-14, Killucan 1-8

By Robert Kindregan

It was raining goals in Springfield last Thursday night as a clinical Mullingar Shamrocks side slotted seven past Killucan to secure their third consecutive win of the campaign in Section B of the Ladies Senior Football Championship.

Club veteran Karen Hegarty (3-2) contributed two goals in the first half before securing her hat-trick with one of the last plays of the game, with Anna Jones, Chloe Smullen and Mairead Newman chiming in with goals of their own.

Killucan struggled for scores outside of an impressive seven-point haul from Maeve Monaghan and had an uphill battle going into the second half with Shamrocks leading 2-9 to 1-5.

The scores dried up for Killucan, managing only three points over the remaining half hour, despite Shamrocks going down to 14 players on two separate occasions with wingbacks Chloe Swarbrigg and Carla Blackman both seeing yellow for dissent.

It was an end-to-end contest from the start, with Mairead Newman rattling the crossbar after 30 seconds, and Karen Hegarty striking into the bottom left to raise the first of eight green flags of the match after a minute played.

Maeve Monaghan struck over a free from close after two early wides for her side.

Newman went searching for another goal but came into trouble, turning back for support and passing to the onrushing Honor MacNamara, who made no mistake in kicking over.

Another Monaghan free was followed quickly by a Chloe Smullen point.

Monaghan had a shot on goal at the 15-minute mark but went out for Killucan’s third wide, while Hegarty put Shamrocks five points clear when she pointed after running into space.

Mairead Newman closed from close, turned and passed to Jones in space, who took her score well. She followed it with an excellent point from play, receiving the ball with her back to goal and striking over on the turn.

Maeve Monaghan scored two consecutive placed balls after the 20-minute mark, before Susanna Buckley bombed down the centre of the pitch and kicked over a deserved score.

Shamrocks found a second goal when Anna Jones struck from 20 metres out, the powerful effort bouncing off the hands of Laura Doyle and into the path of Mairead Newman, who finished coolly into the net.

The Killucan response came through full-forward Ellen Shaw, who received a ball in from Monaghan and rattled the net with a powerful kick.

Chloe Smullen added two excellent scores from play to her tally either side of a Maeve Monaghan free when the half-time whistle blew at 2-9 to 1-5.

Shamrocks returned to action with intent as Karen Hegarty kicked over the bar inside the opening two minutes, followed by a score from Zara Corroon. Hegarty looked for a point of her own moments later, but the ball dropped fortuitously through the keeper’s hands and into the net.

Monaghan added three more placed balls over the next period of the match, limiting Shamrocks to a free from Jones.

Hegarty was brought down one-on-one with the keeper for a penalty, but Jones’ effort was saved well. Jones received the ball in space minutes later and made no mistake, kicking the ball into the left corner.

Shamrocks twisted the knife further over the remaining 10 minutes, with Smullen scoring her fourth point from play, followed by the score of the match when Jones broke free around 45 metres out and darted towards goal, sending the keeper the wrong way and kicking emphatically into the corner.

Zara Corroon added her second point, and as the final five minutes played out Killucan had their heads down and goals came from Hegarty and Smullen.

Shamrocks will take huge delight from their three performances so far, which will be catching the eye of their likely opponents in the knockout rounds, as they sit top of Section B on nine points.

Killucan’s result means they are now unable to progress to the knockouts but will be hoping to avoid relegation in their final game.

Scorers – Mullingar Shamrocks: K Hegarty 3-2, A Jones 2-4 (0-1f), C Smullen 1-4, M Newman 1-0, Z Corroon 0-2, S Buckley 0-1, H McNamara 0-1

Killucan: Maeve Monaghan 0-7 (0-6f), E Shaw 1-0, S Weir-Hall 0-1

Mullingar Shamrocks: Holly McCormack, Siobhan O’Donnell, Annemarie O’Reilly, Eve Hynes, Carla-Rose Blackman, Melek Fagan, Chloe Swarbrigg, Jenna Kelly, Anna Jones, Chloe Smullen, Honor MacNamara, Zara Corroon, Susanna Buckley, Mairead Newman; Karen Hegarty.

Subs: Sinead Sweeney for E Hynes, Grace Daly for M Newman, Katie Matthews for C Smullen, Sarah Geoghegan for K Hegarty.

Killucan: Laura Doyle, Cathy Doyle, Rachel Darby, Rebecca O’Neill, Eibhlin Mulvey, Fiona Leavy, Caoimhe McCrossan, Maria Kelly, Aoife O’Malley, Orla Quinn, Amelia Shaw, Erin Core, Sian Weir-Hall, Ellen Shaw; Meadhbh Monaghan.

Subs: Aoibheann Kennedy for C McCrossan, Hannah Borthwick for E Mulvey, Ellen Monaghan for E Core, Emma Hynes for M Monaghan.

Referee: Ken Gunning (Rochfortbridge).