Stalemate in entertaining Mullingar derby

Gerry Buckley reportsTwo Mullingar sides played out a scoreless league draw at D'Alton Park on Monday last (January 3rd), with the home team's second string sharing the points with Hibernian Celtic after an entertaining 90 minutes.In truth, a draw was a fair result, albeit the visitors were justifiably aggrieved that they were not awarded a penalty in the 75th minute when J.P. Bracken was taken down in the Town parallelogram. Unsurprisingly, both sides looked a little ring-rusty after the festive period and clear-cut chances were few and far between over the hour and a half, with neither keeper having to produce any great saves of note.With all 22 players togged and ready to go somewhat prematurely, veteran referee Paddy Nolan decided to start proceedings some ten minutes early, on a pleasant but cold afternoon. It was Hibs who had the best of the early exchanges. Jacko McNamee spurned the best chance of the opening quarter with Darren Quinn in the Town goal easily holding his weak shot from the edge of the box. Stephen Daly was to the fore in the Hibs' attack but he was off target with a fine individual effort.A succession of Hibernian corners yielded no reward before Dean Moore's cross at the other end shaved the Hibernian crossbar, while great approach play by Darragh Reilly teed up Michael Grimes whose shot hit the side netting. Town centre half Martin Charles was called on twice in quick succession to shore up his defence as half-time approached and the home side had the better of the closing exchanges in the first moiety, without ever really looking like they would break the deadlock.The Town's Michael Joyce snatched at a great opportunity in the opening stages of the second half. In the 53rd minute, a terrific Hibernian move ended with Lee Stenson shaving the Town upright, but the ball ended up wide of the target. A minute later, a late (and seemingly incorrect) offside whistle stopped Stephen Daly as he got set to bear down on the Town goal.Nevin deniedThe end-to-end action continued apace with Martin Nevin making space for himself well, but John Comaskey held Nevin's shot securely in the Hibernian goal. Town sub, John Nevin soon shot straight at Comaskey when well positioned. A Hibernian defender appeared to handle the ball on the edge of his penalty area, but the referee deemed it unintentional and waved play on. Within seconds of a double Hibernian substitution in the 64th minute, they almost took the lead but Darren Quinn managed to claw away J.P. Bracken's looping header.The Town's Christy Nevin could have opened the scoring but his low shot was deflected out for a corner, which ultimately came to nothing. John Nevin hit the side netting from a tight angle, before the aforementioned penalty claim by Hibs was turned away, much to the frustration of J.P. Bracken and his team-mates and the relief of the Town defenders who seemed resigned to the referee pointing to the spot.An overly-ambitious shot by Martin Nevin was wide of the target as both sides continued to go all out in search of an elusive goal. A scramble in the Hibernian box was eventually sorted as a couple of Town players failed to make proper contact with the ball as it bobbled invitingly.Hibernian Celtic very nearly claimed maximum points in the 86th minute, a fine move started by Steve Cummins and carried on by J.P. Bracken ending with a thunderous shot from Stephen Daly flying narrowly over Darren Quinn's crossbar. A Bracken cross then almost curled into Quinn's net but the ‘keeper acrobatically tipped the ball away at the expense of a corner, from which a low-trajectory volley by Hibs' substitute Ian Graham was held by Darren Quinn in the last meaningful action of a sporting contest.Mullingar Town: Darren Quinn, Christy Nevin, Mark Connolly, David Nevin, Martin Charles, Michael Grimes, Darragh Reilly, James Nevin, Martin Nevin, Michael Joyce, Dean Moore. Sub: John Nevin (for Reilly, half-time).Hibernian Celtic: John Comaskey, Declan Timlin, Andy Coffey, Steve Cummins, Christy Keena, J.P. Bracken, Jacko McNamee, Olly McEntee, Stephen Daly, Vinny Timoney, Lee Stenson. Subs: Nigel Graham (for McEntee, half-time), Ian Graham (for Timoney, 64 mins), Geoffrey Rogers (for Stenson, 64 mins).Referee: Paddy Nolan (Longford).