Hogan’s late goal seals hard-earned win for St Loman’s

St Loman's, Mullingar 1-10 Shelmaliers (Wexford) 1-8

In ideal conditions in TEG Cusack Park last Sunday afternoon in the first round of the Leinster club championship, the senior footballers from St Loman’s, Mullingar were pushed all the way by a fit and focused Shelmaliers outfit just a week after their county title win in Wexford, with Paddy Dowdall’s men edging a hard-fought contest by a two-point margin.

It needed a late goal from an unusual source – corner back Eoghan Hogan – to secure the Delvin Road based outfit a fascinating quarter-final slot next Sunday week away to Longford champions Emmet Óg Killoe, ironically now managed by former St Loman’s boss Luke Dempsey.

In truth, this was far from a vintage display by the Mullingar blues who can be thankful for their opponents’ profligacy throughout a game which seldom reached any great heights. While Dowdall and his management team will be delighted to have progressed while playing moderately, the victory came at a cost with livewire corner forward Shane Dempsey red-carded in added-time – harshly it seemed to most observers.

Shelmaliers had the bulk of the early possession, but they were unable to convert this into scores. Indeed, they missed three scoreable frees in the opening seven minutes – the ‘culprits’ were Eoghan Nolan, Glen Malone and Nolan again (whose shot came back off the post). Prior to the last of these misses, John Heslin was yellow-carded – harshly it appeared – after pulling off a great catch.

A ninth-minute counterattack yielded the first score of the game to the always-threatening Dempsey and it was another six minutes before Heslin doubled the home team’s lead from a 45-metre free, sandwiched between which both keepers were called upon to make routine saves. Further points followed from Danny McCartan and Heslin (another free) before Conor Hearne belatedly opened the Wexford champions’ account with a fisted point after soloing goalward in the 22nd minute.

Dempsey pounced again in the 26th minute at the end of a rare flowing move, but his opposite number Hearne soon cancelled this out (via Jason Daly’s fingertips), moments after a quickfire triple-goal chance for the visitors (following a strong run by Nolan) yielded nothing due to solid St Loman’s defending. A low-trajectory point from Kevin Regan put the winners ahead by 0-6 to 0-2, but Shelmaliers kept well in touch with a point apiece from the boots of Arnie Murphy (despite being pressurised) and Hearne (availing of a bad handling error by St Loman’s). Heslin converted his third free of the contest (the award to Dempsey seemed soft) on the stroke of half-time, to leave his side with a flattering 0-7 to 0-3 lead at the interval.

Eoin Doyle reduced the deficit when he kicked a brace of outstanding points for Ronan Joyce’s charges in the first minute and eighth minute of the second half, either side of Heslin missing a difficult free. All Star nominee Ronan O’Toole soon opened his account in style before former Dublin star Eoghan O’Gara almost made an instant impression when introduced as a sub, but his ‘point’ was disallowed – harshly it seemed for allegedly charging with the ball.

Dempsey added two more points – the first of them with his fist – to put St Loman’s 0-10 to 0-6 in front after 51 minutes Conversely, at the other end, the strong-running Murphy kicked a brace of very poor wides. A fine Eoghan Nolan free conversion preceded a miss from a simpler position by the same player. A great point under pressure from O’Gara left Shelmaliers just two points in arrears (0-10 to 0-8) with 56 minutes on the clock. Three minutes later, Hogan emerged as an unlikely goalscoring hero for the Westmeath champions when he rounded off a fine move by rifling the ball to the roof of the net.

A fine personal display by Dempsey was marred in added-time when he was red-carded for a high challenge on Simon Donohoe. The card colour could easily have been lighter on another day. A foot-block on the hard-working Murphy resulted in a late penalty which goalkeeper Craig McCabe converted with aplomb to set up a dramatic finish. There was still time for two last-gasp ‘45’s for Shelmaliers, but the home team stood firm to advance to the last eight of a competition they should have undoubtedly won six years ago under Luke Dempsey.

Scorers - St Loman's, Mullingar: S Dempsey 0-4, J Heslin 0-3 (3f), E Hogan 1-0, E Gaffney, D McCartan, R O'Toole 0-1 each. Shelmaliers: C Hearne 0-3, C McCabe 1-0 (pen), E Doyle 0-2, E Nolan (f), A Murphy, E O'Gara 0-1 each.

St Loman’s, Mullingar: Jason Daly; Eoghan Hogan, Darragh O’Keeffe, Oisín Hogan; Jack Geoghegan, David Whelan, Enda Gaffney; Sean Flanagan, John Heslin; TJ Cox, Sam McCartan, Kevin Regan; Danny McCartan, Ronan O’Toole, Shane Dempsey. Subs used: Peter Foy for Gaffney (47), Kelvin Reilly for Flanagan (47), Tristan Graham for Cox (54), Ryan Jones for Regan (60).

Shelmaliers: Craig McCabe; Dan Campbell, Graham Staples, Conor Roche; Glen Malone, Simon Donohoe, Ross Banville; Aidan Cash, Sean Keane Carroll; Arnie Murphy, Eoghan Nolan, Eoin Doyle; Paul Hearne, Brian Malone, Conor Hearne. Subs used: Eoghan O’Gara for Cash (41), Mark Power for Roche (52).

Ref: Seamus Mulhare (Laois).