St Loman’s were crowned county u21 champions at the expense of neighbours Mullingar Shamrocks in the Downs last Saturday. The two Mullingar clubs contested the final having put the two Athlone based clubs to the sword in the semi-final. The winners easily accounted for Garrycastle in their semi-final while Shamrocks ended Athlone’s hopes of silverware.
Shamrocks had the advantage of the biting wind in the opening half and kicked the first two points of the game. There was little between the sides in the opening period but the decisive score of the half arrived in injury time when a Ben Kilmurray goal gave the boys in blue and white a lead they would never relinquish.
A second major in the 37th minute put the Saints firmly in the driving seat. To their credit the men in green kept battling away and were rewarded when Adam Corroon finished to the net following a great run from Denis Corroon. At that stage and with just nine minutes remaining only two points separated the sides.
St Loman’s class began to show in the final 10 minutes however and they outscored their neighbours by four points to nil in the final minutes to run out deserving winners.
Winning an u21 title is a huge honour for any club. Yet the timing of this competition needs to be addressed. Running the competition off in the middle/end of November is not fair on the players involved. Surely it would make more sense to fit it in earlier in the calendar, especially as it only involves a handful of games. Nobody wants to be training or playing at this stage of the year when pitches are very likely to be either too wet or frozen over. No doubt I’ll be making the same argument this time next year.
