Third successive U19 title for Mullingar Athletic

Mullingar Athletic U19s travelled to Portlaoise FC on Saturday afternoon needing only a draw to secure their third consecutive Premier Division Title.

Right from the kick off it was clear that Portlaoise were out to reverse the heavy defeat that the Mullingar side handed them just a few weeks ago in Gainstown. Portlaoise provided some very early pressure with their direct play and robust challenges. Athletic successfully defended some early corners and began to settle into the game after the early exchanges.

As Mullingar grew into the game Ty Masterson, at right back, started to link up well with his midfield trio of Brian Ronan, Mark Sugrue and James Rusinger and from here Athletic started to spring some bright attacking moves. On fifteen minutes, following a neat exchange of passes in midfield, Rusinger played a splendid ball into the left channel releasing the energetic Nathan Scally who breezed past the Portlaoise defender before seeing his shot saved by the keeper and out for a corner.

Beau Greene’s corner to the near post was headed away by the Portlaoise defence only to be picked up by Mark Sugrue at the edge of the box. Sugrue floated a lovely ball towards the back post and it was brilliantly controlled by Brian Ronan who, with his second touch, buried the ball to the bottom corner of the Portlaoise net.

Portlaoise responded well to this setback with some neat football before forcing yet another corner on 20 minutes. After a scramble in the box from the resulting corner, the ball somehow found its way into the Athletic net to make it 1-1.

With thirty-five minutes on the clock Mullingar were dealt a severe blow with the controversial sending off of influential midfielder Mark Sugrue.

Athletic had to shuffle the shape but managed to see out the remaking ten minutes to half time and maintain the scoreline at 1-1 at the break.

Athletic started the second half with a change in team shape and defended with two banks of four, while leaving Scally as the lone ranger up front.

The opening exchanges of the second half were quite even and the home side not taking advantage of their numerical supremacy and with neither side creating any significant goal threat. However, as the half-progressed Beau Greene and Simon Jorgenson came more into the game and were starting to impact with their dribbling runs on the break.

Cathal Nevin, Mohamed Mugtabe, Ronan Byrne, and Ty Masterson were solid at the back as was the ever calm and impressive Paul Keating between the sticks.

In fact, it was goalkeeper Keating who was to assist in Athletic’s breakthrough. As the Mullingar defence snuffed out a rare Portlaoise attack and the ball fell to Keating, his quick thinking and fantastic driven pass released Scally down the left side. Scally took the ball under instant control and drove at the Portlaoise defence, turning several defenders inside out before shooting past a helpless keeper to put Athletic into a 1-2 lead with 60 minutes on the clock.

The goal was greeted with a massive cheer from the travelling support.

On 70 minutes Simon Jorgenson picked up the ball in the middle of the pitch, exchanged passes with Beau Greene before playing Scally in again. Once again, the impressive Nathan Scally made no mistake and found the net for his second and Athletic’s third.

The Mullingar side were now 3-1 up with twenty minutes left to play.

Owen McMahon and Emmet Brennan were introduced at this point to add a boost of energy to the defence. Athletic were impressive in how they defended as a unit and stayed nice and compact, moving over and back the pitch thus reducing Portlaoise to a few efforts from distance.

Robert O'Connor also came on up front and this added an extra layer of energy to the side. Athletic were very much defending deep and playing on the counter attack and it once again nearly paid off as Beau Greene played in O’Connor, only for the Portlaoise keeper to rush from his line and smother the shot. In fact, O’Connor nearly scored again as his overhead kick was cleared off the line by the Portlaoise defender late on.

The game went into six added minutes of injury time and Portlaoise capitalized on some tired Athletic bodies and minds as the concentration was running low. They found the net with a shot through a crowd of players to make it 3-2. However, the Mullingar Athletic side held out for a fantastic win that no doubt they deserved.

After the game, and with great celebration from the squad and travelling support, The U19 Premier Division Trophy was presented by a representative from the CCFL to Mullingar Athletic AFC team captain, Brian Ronan.

This was a proud day for Mullingar Athletic AFC in capturing their third successive CCFL U19 Premier League Title. What was equally impressive for the club was that the Mullingar U19 Development Team were also playing away to Tullamore Town FC at the same time on Saturday afternoon last and secured a creditable 2-2 draw.

Mullingar Ath squad: Paul Keating, Matthew Shaw, Ty Masterson, Mohamed Mugtabe, Ronan Byrne, Cathal Nevin, James Rusinger, Brian Ronan, Mark Sugrue, Beau Greene, Simon Jorgenson, Nathan Scally, Owen McMahon, Robert O Connor, Emmet Brennan, Matthew Shaw, Fionn Maguire, Ben Sheerin, Ryan Kelly, Ryan Kenny.

Team coaches: Tony Sheerin and Stephen O’Donnell.

MSL U15

RFA SWANS 0-0 Ballinahown FC

Our U15s welcomed league leaders Ballinahown to Gainstown on March 30 in pretty wet and cold playing conditions.

The away team started the strongest, putting our girls under a lot of pressure but to be fair we dealt with everything Ballinahown threw at us.

Asha was outstanding at centre back and motivated all our girls to put it up to the visitors. Things started to turn around for Swans, with some neat play from our midfield cavalry, led by a very impressive Laurie. It remained deadlocked between the sides at half time: 0-0.

The second half saw much better play from our girls, creating several chances and the away keeper was forced to make some very good saves. Our players piled on the pressure but Ballinahown were very good at the back and also looked dangerous on the break. They were unlucky not to score with a delightful free kick late on hitting the post, catching our defence and keeper off guard. It remained all square at full time however - a very fair result all things considered.

Our Never Give Up attitude was certainly evident today as each and every Swan gave their all.

Vision 2030 Fund

There was no winner of this week’s Vision 2030 Fund Jackpot so next Thursday’s jackpot will be €1,200

This week’s lucky dip winners were Joe Lynch who wins a €25 What’s For Dinner? voucher and Julie Cummins who wins a €25 Apache Pizza Mullingar voucher. Well done guys!

Don`t forget the Vision 2030 fund is designed to fund our new 2nd full sized all-weather pitch which we hope to complete by autumn this year.

We can only deliver each phase of the plan with your continued support so please sign up today using the link https://tinyurl.com/mafcvision2030