In a thrilling match of football in excellent conditions in Mullingar on a Sunday afternoon, St Loman’s, Mullingar and The Downs ended in a stalemate. As holders of the championship title for the previous two years, they must face each other once more to determine the recipient of the Flanagan Cup.
Within one minute of the game starting, John Heslin shone by scoring a fantastic point. Five minutes into the game, Heslin put Fola Ayorinde in a spot to score with his sharp cross, enabling Ayorinde to swiftly turn and dispatch the ball past Trevor Martin. However, The Downs countered with two points coming from Ian Martin before Niall Mitchell supplied Luke Loughlin with an opportunity to score. The 10th minute saw Loughlin put the ball in the top corner of Jason Daly’s net.
For the remainder of the first half, the quality of points scored remained high. St Loman’s had Sam McCartan to thank for a majestic long-distance strike from play and a 50-metre free kick, which positioned his team slightly ahead (1-6 to 1-5) by the end of the first half.
To determine the champion of Westmeath, St Loman’s, Mullingar and The Downs will have to replay the match. The McCartan brothers, Danny and Sam, got one point each, expanding the reigning champions’ lead by three points shortly after the restart of the game. Sam followed up with an admirable point, bringing the match to 1-9 to 1-6 with just over half-an-hour played. The 2022 Leinster finalists weren’t too far behind, equalising through simultaneous points from Kevin O’Sullivan, Loughlin, and Charlie Drumm. A Heslin double (a free kick and superb point from play) pushed St Loman’s two clear, only for Andrew Kilmartin and Mitchell to promptly equal the scoreline with noteworthy points for The Downs.
In a previously subdued display, Ronan O’Toole remarkably nudged the Mullingar squad into the lead (1-12 to 1-11) with only four minutes left of regular play. Substitute Nathan Lally nearly scored a goal for the defending champions, but he lost possession of the ball and Loughlin seized the opportunity to balance the match through a free-kick following the counterattack. An added time of at least three minutes was set. After an impressive catch by Jonathan Lynam, Loughlin scored a challenging free-kick in the second added minute, taking The Downs to the lead. However, the game was drawn again when Eoghan Hogan managed a cool-headed equaliser as time was almost exhausted, capping a deliberate move.
St Loman’s Mullingar squad included J Daly, D Whelan, D O’Keeffe, O Hogan, E Gaffney, E Hogan (0-1), S McCartan (0-4, one free), J Geoghegan, and K Regan alongside F Ayorinde (1-0), R O’Toole (0-1), S Flanagan, D McCartan (0-1), J Heslin (0-6, three frees) and P Foy. Substitutes included TJ Cox for Foy (42), K Reilly for Regan (46), N Lally for Ayorinde (52).
The Downs team included T Martin, P Murray, C Drumm (0-1), E Burke, J Moran, C Nolan, O Murphy, J Lynam and C Coughlan (0-1), together with I Martin (0-2), A Kilmartin (0-2), K O’Sullivan (0-1), L Loughlin (1-5, four frees), N Mitchell (0-1) and P Martin. Substitutes named were D Egerton for Murray (42), A Shaw for P Martin (52), K Smullen for Egerton (due to injury, 60+1).
The referee for the match was E Kelly from Castledaly.