Leinster Men’s League Div 5
Pembroke wanderers 6’s 2 - 4 v Mullingar 2
Goal scorers: Owen Wiltshire, David Kingston, Ben Sauren & Graham Duggan
Player of the Match: John Murphy

Mullingar 2’s traveled to Pembroke with a full squad, the squad was a good blend of youth and experience, Mullingar were looking to put last week’s narrow defeat behind them and push for a win today.

In what was a must win game, a solid defensive performance from the outset was key if Mullingar were to register their first win of the season,
Mullingar wanted to focus on structure and defending in the first quarter, as in the previous two games gave sloppy, early goals away. Within the first few mins some silky skills from Owen Wiltshire which saw him beat a number of Pembroke defenders before putting the ball in the back of the net, a great start for Mullingar, However, this great start was very short lived, as Pembroke managed to find a way through the defensive line and pass the ball into the goal at the end of the first quarter. The first quarter was very end to end and scrappy which seemed to sum up most of the game.

Like most of Mullingar’s games, the second quarter saw an improvement with some great passes through the midfield, a pass down the left found returning former player Ashley Weily running at full pace at Pembroke’s defence to win Mullingar’s first short corner of the game, with no regular short corner stopper, regular flicker Stephen decided he would stop for David Kingston to just leather it at goal, despite Stephen making a bit of a hash of the stop David worked his magic to flick the ball just above the side backboards making near impossible for defenders & keepers to save, Mullingar lead 2-1.

The 3rd quarter Pembroke started to find space around the pitch, Mullingar players were just starting to lose a bit of their shape with players getting pulled out of their positions to try and make tackles or help a teammate. Pembroke were putting more and more pressure on the defence when eventually they found themselves winning a short corner after a perfect timed foot in the circle. A well worked corner and a strong hit from the striker managed to sneak past the keeper and the post man to level the game.

With Pembroke drawing level giving them a lift and Mullingar determined not give anything away the game began to get niggley, from the restart a nasty injury to Pembroke’s captain after coming in from the wrong side on Graeme trying to hit the ball found himself on the floor with a nasty gash to his nose. With both teams challenging hard for 50/50 an exchange of handbags and squaring up saw David and a Pembroke player both receiving a yellow card for their spat. Thankfully it was still 10 v 10.

Into the last quarter and as expected both teams were going for the win, the game became very who wants it most, Pembroke were throwing more and more people forward into attack, however the domination John Murphy was mopping balls up and making tackles (you shall not past!!!) Both left and right backs were doing the same and anything making it past the skipper would clean up for them. While Pembroke were high this was allowing skipper to send his usual ariels up to the forwards as there was loads of space for Ben & David to run into and collect the ball, Mullingar finally took the lead after Ben Saurin scored his first senior goal for the club. Mullingar were unlucky not to score another after Stephen cut out a ball just inside his own half, ran with the ball into Pembroke’s 25 to see young James O’Malley make what can only be described as the most perfect run across the defenders from one side of the circle make space, Stephen passed the ball to James who defected the ball just past the post! That run really did deserve a goal, Pembroke decided to take their Keeper off in the last few minutes to add an extra attacking player, Whilst this did cause some problems for Mullingar every player was committing to the 50/50 balls, everyone was working hard to support each other and not giving up, this was rewarded when a Mullingar counter attack found them selves in Pembroke’s 25 and with no keeper really had to score, Up stepped debutante Graham Duggan a ball came across the circle, a few of the Mullingar's defenders had their head in their hands as Graham shaped to sweep it on his reverse, (Please don’t miss or back stick it!), Graham must have been practicing these as he managed to reverse sweep the ball into the goal netting to make it 4-2 and finish the game off!
I know the skipper was relieved it counted and to hear that final whistle.

Mullingar’s first win of the season to gain those vital 3 points.

Mullingar’s next game is Saturday 11th Nov at home to Weston 2’s @ 3pm.

A special mention to Ed for umpiring ours and other two away games on Saturday.

Well done to Ashley Wiley who played his first game back after an 8-year hiatus, you still have it! Well done to the young lads Graham Duggan, James O’Malley, Aran Cahalan & Cameron Wiltshire who all stood tall throughout the game. And well done to the silver fox John Murphy who made it look all to easy at the back!