Mullingar Shamrocks began their Under-20 championship campaign with a comprehensive victory over The Downs in Springfield on Tuesday evening in a fast paced and entertaining game. Goals still win matches and Shamrocks hit four on the night, three from the boot of Alex Sheerin. All four goals were scored in the first half and indeed it could have been doubled – there were some glaring misses and some very good saves by The Downs goalkeeper, Lee Colgan. Shamrocks placed the emphasis on moving the ball fast and carved open The Downs defence on a number of occasions. Michael Moloney opened the scoring but from the restart a string of passes sent Alex Sheerin through for his first goal. Keith Mooney kicked a fine point off the left boot and a pointed free added to Alex’s total. The Downs kept in touch with a few fine points. Killian Mooney pointed before Alex Sheerin netted for the second  time, this time off the post with the ball squirming around the goal before eventually crossing the line. Fine play by Matthew Shaw played a significant contribution to this score. Shamrocks regained possession from the restart and a bout of combined play ended with Alex completing his hat trick. Two minutes later Gavin Pierce finished to the net that completed a move that began with an Adam Glynn turnover deep in defence (4-3 to 0-5).  The only two-pointer of the night followed from the boot of Adam Buckley and the goal keeper followed with a pointed 45. In between Matthew Shaw added a point after some great play by Mohammed and Keith Mooney to bring the interval score to 4-7 to 0-6. 

The Downs began the second half with points from Eoin Mullen and Conor Cleary before Alex Sheerin responded with a hand-passed point after a great catch and delivery by Mohammed.  Rory McCaul and Alex again added points as did Karl McCormack and Padraig Monaghan for The Downs (4-10 to 0-11). The exchange of scores continued to the final whistle with Conor Heffernan, Adam Buckley and two fine efforts from Padraig Casey completed the Shamrocks total. Adam Buckley finished the evening with a spectacular catch from the high heavens in what was a good evening for Mullingar Shamrocks. And a good one too for Ryan Kelly who made a comeback after the best part of 12 months in the injured bay with a torn cruciate ligament, coincidentally damaged against The Downs in last year’s Senior championship. Welcome back Ryan. 

Two-pointer Count: 1 from Adam Buckley. 

Mullingar Shamrocks: Adam Buckley (0-4); Ben Sheerin, Adam Glynn, Peter Finch; Callum Rigney, Ty Masterson (Padraig Casey, 0-2), Matthew Shaw (0-1); Elmugtaba Mohammed, Criostóir Ormsby (Ronan Byrne); Killian Mooney (0-2) [Ted Aherne], Conor Heffernan, Rory McCaul (0-1); Gavin Pierce (1-0) [Ben McNamee], Paul Keating, Alex Sheerin (3-3) [Ryan Kelly]. 

Other Panelists: Tom Daly, John Shaw, James Flynn, Hugo Corroon, Jack Toal.