Town exit Cup after battling display
Mullingar Town 0, Wexford Bohemians 2
Mullingar Town welcomed visitors from the sunny south east to D'Alton Park on Sunday last in cold, but ideal footballing conditions.
And on a very heavy pitch, it was the Wexford town side that progressed to the next round with a clinical display of finishing that the home side lacked. Mullingar Town shared equal amounts of possession throughout the game and had chances, but the difference between the sides was the finishing touch and in truth Wexford Bohemians were well worth their win.
Mullingar Town will rue their lack of penetration in the first half and their lack of finding the net in the second even though they went mighty close on a couple of occasions but for all their bluster and effort they could not trouble the score keeper and that will be more than frustrating when the review this game in the cold light of day.
The home side actually had the ball in the net after barely two minutes when Sam Watkins headed in, but his effort was in vain as it was given as offside but instead of igniting the home side it merely awoke Wexford Bohs who dominated for the next quarter and after going close, their centre forward Dermot Flood punished some slack Mullingar defending when he curled a beauty to the top corner for a 1-0 lead after 16 minutes. The visitors continued to dominate and were deadly on the break but could not add to their tally while they limited Mullingar Town to a couple of half chances at the other end, none of which troubled their goalie Colm O’Dowd.
David Dyer and Sam Watkins did go close as the half came to a close but Mullingar Town never looked like breaking through what in truth was a solid Wexford Bohs defence and the visitors led by that solitary goal at the short whistle.
Mullingar Town looked reinvigorated after the break while the visitors remained compact at the back and tried to hit them on the break and this pattern continued unabated throughout the half as we switched from attack to counter attack almost at every blink. Nathan McCullagh went close for the home side with a fine header after a super right-sided move on 54 minutes, but after Adrian Rapacki had denied Bohs' Todd Hynes at point-blank range, town did not heed the warning.
Just seconds later sub Rhys Murphy doubled the visitors advantage with a well taken second after another Mullingar attack was repelled. It unsettled Town for a while and they were slightly lucky not to concede a third goal, but to their credit they never threw in the towel and dominated the last third of the game completely.
Substitute Shane O’Keeffe headed wide and McCullagh saw his effort come off the post as the Mullingar men pressed late on, while Daragh Kiernan looked to have pulled one back, but his brilliant effort from long-range came back off the crossbar. Tiernan Rossiter cleared of the Bohs line when another Town effort was repelled and it almost signalled the white flag for the home side and even with their manager getting a late red card, Wexford Bohs held out and progress to the next round, while for Mullingar its back to domestic fare next week.
Scorers - Wexford Bohs: Dermot Flood 16 minutes, Rhys Murphy 58 mins.
Teams - Mullingar Town: Adrian Rapacki, Jamie Loran, David Mimnagh, Liam Brennan, Jason Charles, Paul Reid, Greg Rozicki, David Dyer, Nathan McCullagh, Sam Watkins and Daragh Kiernan. Subs: Shane O’Keeffe for Loran and TJ Cox for Rozicki (60 mins).
Wexford Bohemians: Colm O’Dowd, Fran Cleary, Ben Butler, Tiernan Rossiter, Jamie Thomas, Eddie Pitman, Craig Kelly, Dermot Flood, Paul Underwood, Todd Hynes and Shane Bergin. Subs: Rhys Murphy for Underwood (55 mins), Cian Whelan for Bergin and Lewis Kinlan for Flood (65 mins), Shane Hall for Kelly (82 mins).
Referee: Ultan Beaumont.
Footnote: Prior to the game a well observed minutes silence was held for former Town chairman Jimmy Dowd and Mick Price who both passed away suddenly last Thursday.