Cox goal proves decisive as St Loman's maintain unbeaten run

St Loman's, Mullingar 1-7 Coralstown Kinnegad 0-8

In a near-replica of last year’s Westmeath senior football championship final, St Loman’s, Mullingar edged out Coralstown/Kinnegad by a two-point margin in last Sunday’s contest in TEG Cusack Park.

This was very much a forgettable game of football. However, in the final analysis, the Delvin Rd outfit are still firm favourites to win what would be a remarkable eighth Flanagan Cup title in 12 years, with a penultimate round slot already in the bag. For their part, last year’s defeated finalists face another red and white-clad side in Caulry in what will be a make-or-break fifth and final round robin game

Given the profile of the two clubs involved, it was difficult for all in attendance to believe just how mediocre the opening quarter was in terms of quality football. The wind-assisted holders would have been expected to rack up a significant tally therein, but they could only muster a converted free by John Heslin (after a contentious decision to penalise the underdogs for touching the ball on the ground) in the 12th minute. Even at that, the umpires’ decision was belated. This score cancelled out Darren Giles’ free a minute earlier. A scoreline of 0-1 each neatly summed up many of the ills of the modern game.

The opening scores from play came from Rory Sheahan and Liam Daly in the 18th and 19th minutes respectively. What proved to be the game’s only three-pointer arrived in the 23rd minute when Enda Gaffney and TJ Cox combined to put Ronan O’Toole through on goal, but last year’s All Star nominee was bravely foiled by Stephen McNevin. However, an alert Cox was on hand to cleverly steer the loose ball to the net soccer-style.

Shortly afterwards, Ciaran Daly Snr was black-carded, and the reigning champions made the most of their numerical advantage by rifling over three unanswered points in as many minutes, courtesy of Heslin (a remarkable lineball from what looked an impossible angle), O’Toole (a very good ‘mark’), and Shane Dempsey (a fine score from open play). On the half-hour mark, David Giles picked out Shane Fleming in acres of space, but he opted to take a point when a goal looked on the cards. St Loman’s led by 1-5 to 0-3 at the interval.

Kevin Regan’s fisted effort came back off the upright in the opening minute of the second moiety. Paschal Kellaghan’s charges now had the very useful breeze behind them, but they still found scores hard to come by. However, they had the gap down to two points (1-5 to 0-6) by the end of the third quarter with scores from Liam Daly (an improvised fisted effort at the end of a Darren Giles free), Fleming (a free, moments after Sam McCartan had been sin-binned), and sub Jack Torpey (who did very well to cut in along the endline and fist a point).

O’Toole responded with a fisted score of his own. A Dempsey shot came back off the woodwork before sub Dan leech compensated for a bad miss moments earlier with a neat point in the 52nd minute. A rare flowing move by Paddy Dowdall’s men ended with Dempsey deliberately pointing when a goal was possible. Fleming replied in the 57th minute with a neat point following a turnover.

Fola Ayorinde (who had replaced Heslin as a precautionary measure at half-time) was dismissed for a second yellow card offence. A minimum of three minutes’ added-time was announced and these had elapsed when Fleming was forced to attempt an ambitious drop-kicked free for a goal with just seconds remaining, but his shot failed to trouble a massed blue and white-clad rearguard.

Scorers – St Loman’s, Mullingar: TJ Cox 1-0, S Dempsey, J Heslin (1f, 1s/l), R O’Toole (1m) 0-2 each, R Sheahan 0-1.

Coralstown/Kinnegad: S Fleming 0-3 (1f), L Daly 0-2, J Torpey, D Leech, Darren Giles (f) 0-1 each.

St Loman’s, Mullingar: Jason Daly; David Whelan, Darragh O’Keeffe, Oisín Hogan; Enda Gaffney, Nathan Lally, Sam McCartan; Jack Geoghegan, Kevin Regan; Rory Sheahan, Ronan O’Toole, Danny McCartan; Shane Dempsey, John Heslin, TJ Cox. Subs used: Fola Ayorinde for Heslin (h-t), Peter Foy for Cox (38), Kelvin Reilly for Sheahan (53), Conor O’Donoghue for Hogan (54), Eoghan Hogan for D McCartan (60).

Coralstown/Kinnegad: Stephen McNevin; Jason Lynch, Daniel Woods, Josh Gahan; Eoghan Bracken, James Maxwell, Eoin O’Brien; Ciaran Daly Jnr, Liam Daly; Ciaran Daly Snr, David Giles, Brían Cooney; Shane Fleming, Darren Giles, Wayne Fox. Subs used: Jack Torpey for Fox (h-t), Dan Leech for Ciaran Daly Jnr (38), Jason Macken for Lynch (49), Callum Cruise for Cooney (51), Podge Quinn for Darren Giles (58).

Ref: Enda Kelly (Castledaly).