St Peter’s boost title bid as Mullingar hopes suffer a blow
Mullingar Town 0 St Peter's 2
By Paul Doolin
Last Wednesday night at Dalton Park, Mullingar Town saw their chances of CCFL Senior Division glory take a huge dent with a devastating loss to close rivals St Peter's in what was an ill-tempered, foul ridden and card laden game.
There were eight yellow cards and a red for Mullingar's Paul Reid and even manager Jacko McNamee, indicating the level of frustration felt by the home side. Indeed, many of those cards were of the very soft variety but it was on the pitch that Town were most frustrated.
Time and again they failed to penetrate a resolute and well marshalled St Peter's defence. Chances were few and far between and when they did create openings, they spurned those opportunities and, as the game wore on, the Athlone side punished them accordingly with goals from Jordan Carr and Clive Harris.
The opening goal was poorly conceded from a corner and the second came after the sending off, again came from a corner that should have been dealt with. In truth, however, the visitors probably just deserved that bit of luck on what was a disappointing night for Town.
The opening 30 minutes was memorable merely for the amount of yellow cards shown with Town's Paul Reid, David Dyer, Daragh Kiernan and Jason Charles in the book for minor infringements. Dyer and especially Nathan McCullagh had chances but both went astray.
St Peter's struck on 35 minutes when Nenad Lazic's cross pinged around the box, was added to by Johnny Kiernan and eventually stabbed home by Jordan Carr, making it 1-0 to the visitors. Indeed, the same player could have doubled the advantage seconds later but missed a sitter.
Mullingar went close before the break with Dyer heading off the crossbar from a Kiernan corner and Reid also went close with a similar header, but St Peter's still led at half-time.
Town went on the offensive from the restart but again they were repelled time and again as they lacked penetration. They had their best chance on 55 minutes when Kieran slotted Nathan McCullagh in, but his effort went agonisingly the wrong side of the post.
Moments later, Paul Reid’s late challenge on the Peter's keeper resulted in a second yellow card followed by an inevitable red. Then manager McNamee was shown a red card for arguing as the game descended into farce and a clear handball from St Peter's went totally unpunished.
That said, Town raised the intensity and Tristan Finnane went very close to equalising after the move of the game saw him denied by Darcy Lawless in the Peter's goal. It was as good as it got for Town as the ten men struggled and, in the drive for an equaliser, they were left open at the back.
After another poorly defended corner, where again the ball zipped around, it was Clive Harris who got the vital touch to score Peter's second and seal the victory in essence.
Town fought on resiliently till the bitter end but could not make any impression and the game petered out to its inevitable conclusion in front of a very disappointed home crowd.
Man of the match: Defences were on top here with Liam Brennan and Charles the pick for Mullingar, while Adam Dowling, Niall Scullion and Danny McManus were solid for St Peter's, but Scott Delaney just gets the nod for a very workmanlike 90 minutes, covering every blade of grass.
St. Peter's: Darcy Lawless, Niall Scullion, Adam Dowling, Danny McManus, Scott Delaney, Luke Kelly, Johnny Kiernan, Clive Harris, Gary Kelly, Jordan Carr, Nenad Lazic. Subs: Corey Jinks for Kiernan (H-T), Johnny Duffy for Lazic (55 mins), Mark Sherlock for Carr (87), Adam O’Brien for Dowling (90).
Mullingar Town: David Sheahan, Jamie Loran, Daragh Kiernan, Alan Cashman, Jason Charles, Paul Reid, Liam Brennan, David Dyer, Nathan McCullagh, Tristan Finnane, Greg Kozicki. Subs: Sean Reid for Cashman (60 mins).
Referee: Ross Cole.