Three valuable away points for Athletic

Mullingar Athletic AFC senior side travelled away on Sunday afternoon to Mountmellick United FC on the back of two high scoring home wins and clean sheets.Athletic have been playing with a great confidence in recent weeks and have assembled a senior squad that should see the club competing for honours at the business end of the league. Athletic were without the services of William Coyne and Joey Broderick and this gave the opportunity for a first league start to Danny Brogan who played in a central midfield role alongside Steve Markey.On what was a splendid, sunny afternoon Mullingar started the game with a high tempo and their passing game and high tempo seen them cut open the home defence on numerous occasions in the first fifteen minutes. Athletic finally made their breakthrough on twenty minutes when a splendid defence splitting pass from Kevin Keegan put centre forward Marcin Mazgis racing in on goals. The Mountmellick "keeper advanced swiftly and as he attempted to dive at the feet of the Mullingar centre forward he bundled him over leaving match referee, Eddie O"Riordan with little choice but to award a penalty to Mullingar and a yellow card to the "keeper. Mullingar"s Niall Flynn stepped up and coolly dispatched the ball to the left hand corner of the Mountmellick net to give the visitors a deserved lead.Athletic lost right full Claudio Nardone on twenty five minutes with a knee injury and he was replaced by James Fagan who has recently re-signed for the club. Mullingar should have extended their lead on thirty eight minutes when Niall Flynn who worked tirelessly throughout the first half, threaded a neat pass through the heart of the Mountmellick defence and once again it was Marcin Mazgis who found himself beating the off-side trap, however he stumbled as he approached the advancing "keeper and the chance had gone.With the second half underway Athletic did not take long to extend their advantage when Sylvester Booziomy found Marcin Mazgis free in the six yard area Mazgis controlled the ball and beat one defender before unleashing a shot to the back of the Mountmellick net.Following this goal Mullingar had two great chances of closing out the game when Sylvester Booziomy raced clear of the Mountmellick United defence on both occasions on fifty and fifty four minutes. However on both occasions Booziomy shot early and dragged his effort in to the right hand side netting. The home side made a double substitution on sixty minutes and this gave a temporary dynamic which saw a couple of surges into the Mullingar eighteen yard box where they forced two corners that were ably dealt with by the Mullingar back four of James Fagan, David Masrterson, Mark Syron and Fiachara Spellman.With seventy minutes gone on the clock Niall Flynn was upended just outside the Mountmellick United FC penalty box and this resulted the referee showing a second yellow and red card to the Mountmellick number five. Mullingar made a number of changes for the last twenty minutes bringing Mark Brady on at left side for Niall Flynn who had taken a number of hard knocks throughout the game. Paul Radford came in for a very tired Sylvester Booziomy. With the minutes counting down on the clock Mullingar were rampant and should have extended their tally of goals.With the final whistle sounding Mullingar were happy with their days work, three away points and another clean sheet for the team and Mullingar "keeper Shane Weir who was always comfortable throughout the ninety minutes. Danny Brogan performed well alongside Steve Markey in central midfield, giving addidional selection problems to the Mullingar management in the coming weeks.Mullingar Athletic AFC: Shane Weir, Claudio Nardone, David Masterson, Mark Syron, Fiachara Spellman, Kevin Keegan, Steve Markey, Danny Brogan, Sylvester Booziomy, Marcin Mazgis, Niall Flynn. Subs: James Fagan for Claudio Nardone, Mark Brady for Niall Flynn, Paul Radford.