Goals flow for Mullingar Town
This from the Westmeath Examiner
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Mullingar Town 4
(B. O’Brien 2, D. Watson, S. Graham)
Drogheda United 2
(A. Dodd, E. Creedon penalty)
Mullingar Town inched themselves a step closer to the Eircom U-21 League quarter-finals with a controlled win over Drogheda United last Saturday in this Midlands Division game that had everything imaginable and once again underlined that picking up points in the competition is not an easy task.
Again the goals flowed easily for the Mullingar Town side and with a striking partnership between Darren Watson and Blaise O’Brien which is getting better by the minute, the Dream Team appear well-placed to bring some much-needed success to their financial backer, Mr Jim Moore.
Employing a relatively “new” system which saw captain Michael Jatto step in as sweeper alongside a solid back four of Alex Curtis, Sami Lutfi, Nadim Akhtar and Jimmy McEntee, Mullingar Town dominated proceedings at times and laid the foundations for progress with a positive first twenty minutes.
Chances appeared relatively frequently for the midlands side in the initial stages and with Ashley Sestanovich providing the ammunition for O’Brien and Watson, the prospects looked bright.
A great ball by Jimmy McEntee (kept on by Nadim Akhtar and looped towards goal by Blaise O’Brien) was almost finished home by Darren Watson midway through the first-half and, minutes later, Ashley Sestanovich almost produced what is now becoming a trademark free-kick of his to give Mullingar Town the lead.
The 1-0 advantage, though, did arrive not long afterwards and another superb example of Blaise O’Brien’s predatory instincts provided the goal. A long, sweeping clearance gave the striker the opportunity to latch onto possession outside the Drogheda United area and when he was given a sight of the posts, dipped his effort outside the alert Esat Takada for a fine finish in the fortieth minute.
A brilliant save by “Jacko” Smyth denied Drogheda United what would have been a superb equaliser in one of the first onslaughts after the initial Mullingar Town lead, but when the half-time whistle sounded, the visitors were in command by 1-0.
Second-half
It should be said that Drogheda United were not exactly going to lie down and be walked on in this game. They would have been in with a good shout of staying level until the interval had it not been for O’Brien’s wonderful opener and when the second-half was up and running, the County Louth side produced more of the same.
After coming back from a 3-0 deficit in their recent Eircom League under-21 derby with Dundalk F.C., there was no doubt that Drogheda United had the ability to do likewise here, before Leroy Rhodes’ team once again demonstrated their brilliant finishing in front of goal with three second-half strikes.
Blaise O’Brien was sent racing through in a similar fashion to his opening effort minutes after the resumption and, spinning around the advancing goalkeeper in brilliant fashion and sliding the ball to the net, gave his team a 2-0 lead.
Drogheda United then reacted with a fabulous goal of their own, with number six Alan Dodd giving Jacko Smyth absolutely no chance by lifting the ball precisely into the net outside the Mullingar Town area.
When the Westmeath side needed a response, Darren Watson delivered the goods. Picking up a splendid Blaise O’Brien pass, the big number fourteen measured his finish in a low and accurate manner for a lead of 3-1.
Drama continued when Drogheda United were able to reduce the leeway for a second time, as a spot-kick awarded soon afterwards was dispatched high into the Mullingar Town net, by the useful Evan Creedon, to make it 3-2.
In this encounter, there was some efficient defending to be found at the heart of the Mullingar Town backline. Captain Michael Jatto cleaned up a large amount of loose ball and he was ably assisted by Alex Curtis, Sami Lutfi and Jimmy McEntee in this regard.
Good work by Nadim Akhtar stemmed some of the Drogheda United confidence inside the last few minutes and with Mullingar Town coming forward in search of a fourth, the skilful Shane Graham came up with the goods when diverting a loose ball to the net in splendid fashion for a 4-2 lead.
To keep up with their previous efforts, Drogheda United stayed in contention as the game progressed, but with Warren Gladdy and substitute Moussa Rattab closing down on the space available for a Drogheda United third, the game was safe for Leroy Rhodes’ team and they continued their march towards the summit of the Eircom League Under-21 Midlands Division with a superb 4-2 win.
The Westmeath club have named four more schools where they will have demonstration coaching sessions. The schools are Sonna School, St Brigid’s, St Patrick’s and Presentation Convent Junior School. These schools will be added to the following who are already involved in the training programme: St Colman’s N.S., Loreto College, Mullingar, C.B.S. National School, Mullingar, Mullingar Com-munity College, Gainstown National School, Gaelscoil an Mhuilinn, St Joseph’s Milltownpass, Curraghmore National School.
Mullingar Town: Aidan “Jacko” Smyth, Alex Curtis, Sami Lutfi, Michael Jatto (Captain), Nadim Akhtar, James McEntee, Shane Graham, Warren Gladdy, Ashley Sestanovich, Darren Watson, Blaise O’Brien. Substitute used: Moussa Rattab.
Drogheda United: Esat Takada, Barry McDonagh, Kieran Donnell, Stuart Smyth, Ben Bradley, Gary Cronin, Alan Dodd, Evan Creedon, Colm Cooney, Derek Delaney.
Substitutes used: Olan Flanagan, Wayne Wright, Danny Broughan, Martin Chubb.
Referee: Denis Dullaghan (Meath District).
