TOP OF THE WORLD
PERHAPS inspired by Shane Mulligan’s ‘Light the bonfires, we’re coming home’ victory speech yesterday afternoon, a Mullinalaghta supporter planted a firework in the pitch after this remarkable win and set it alight.
We can only imagine what the O’Connor Park groundsman thought as the device boomed and crackled in the sky, leaving the grass beneath singed and smoldering though, frankly, who cares.
This was a truly historic occasion, one for the ages, and deserved to be celebrated any which way Mullinalaghta fancied.
A couple of hours after the tiny club had become the first Longford side to win the AIB Leinster senior title, they were still honking their car horns out on the street in Tullamore.
Mulligan, the Mullinalaghta captain, joked beforehand that every man of footballing age from the tiny half parish. with its population of less than 450, was probably going to be togged out in Tullamore.
Against that remarkable background, the club that counts itself as the smallest in Longford, has managed to scale the summit of Leinster, beating one of the very biggest clubs.
They did so with a quite astonishing final 10 minutes that matched the epic ending to last year’s decider when Moorefield stole it from St Loman’s.
On this occasion, Mullinalaghta trailed the raging favourites by three points, 1-6 to 0-6, with 56 minutes played and in a low scoring game it looked done and dusted.
Even when David McGivney reduced the deficit to two points we trusted Kilmacud, with their team full of All-Ireland medallists, would run down the clock.
Mullinalaghta were working from a more radical script though and despite playing into a stiff wind threw everything at Kilmacud to win a penalty.
Cian O’Sullivan was at fault, earning a yellow card for fouling Aidan McElligott, though Crokes goalkeeper David Nestor might save the spot kick, just like he did late on against Portlaoise in the semi-finals.
Rogers went the same way as Portlaoise’s Craig Rogers too, to Nestor’s right, but the kick was powerful and well placed this time and there was no stopping it.
Mullinalaghta led by one now and propelled by momentum won the resulting kick-out which they worked to McElligott for the insurance point.
There was still over five minutes of stoppage time to go but Crokes’ agony was only compounded in those closing stages.
O’Sullivan, the six-time All-Ire- land winning Dublin defender, picked up his second yellow card and was dismissed while, in a separate incident, James McGivney also received a second caution.
Officially, there was only 3,510 at the game but it felt like more as the St Columba’s supporters got behind their team from the start and roared them to an epic win.
Afterwards, Patrick Fox, who won the Man of the Match award for holding back to back Dublin All-Star Paul Mannion scoreless from play, admitted he didn’t even know who they’re playing next.
It’s Dr Crokes, the Munster champions, in the All-Ireland semi-finals on February 16. That will mean that Longford will be without around eight Mullinalaghta players for at least the opening games of the National League though even new county manager Pádraic Davis won’t dare crib about that, not publicly at least.
‘This is the greatest day ever,’ said Mullinalaghta manager Mickey Graham, the win meaning he’ll have to double job it for a while after landing the Cavan job.
Graham confirmed that his side won the toss and opted to play with the strong wind initially.
It seemed a dubious call because while they bounced back well from the concession of an early Pat Burke goal, they were only level at half-time, 1-2 to 0-5.
And when Crokes began to pull clear in the second half, aided by that wind advantage and twice opening up a three-point advantage, they looked destined for a fifth title.
But Burke’s 51st minute point was their last score and, leading 1-6 to 0-6 at that stage, the 2009 All-Ireland winners looked on in horror as Mullinalaghta dug so deep in the closing minutes to mine out a precious win.
‘It’s absolutely huge but I’ve said this since the day I arrived, Longford club football is very competitive,’ Graham, who has led Mullinalaghta to three Longford titles in a row, said. ‘If you look back at the form book over the last three years in Leinster, we’ve always been very competitive.
‘St Loman’s beat us last year by a point and went on and probably should have won the thing outright. So the form book was there with us. It wasn’t that we were coming in as unknowns. It was just that people didn’t use the credit.’
Kilmacud joint boss Robbie Brennan admitted they made the fatal error of thinking they could run down the clock late on.
‘I think that’s probably the mistake we made — we started trying to hold it instead of doing what we’ve done all year which is go forward with the ball and attack,’said Brennan. MULLINALAGHTA ST COLUMBA’S: P Rogers; S Cadam, P Fox, C Brady; D McElligott, S Mulligan, F Mulligan (M Cunningham 48); A McElligott, J Keegan; G Rogers, J McGivney, B Fox; D McGivney, R Brady, J Matthews.
Scorers: R Brady 0-4 (0-1f), G Rogers 1-0 (pen), D McGivney (0-2, 2f), A McElligott, D McElligott 0-1.
KILMACUD CROKES: D Nestor; L Flatman (A Jones 18, black card), R McGowan (N Nolan 66), A McGowan; C O’Connor, C O’Shea, C O’Sullivan; C Dias, C Casey; S Horan, S Williams (K Dyas 48), S Cunningham; P Burke, P Mannion, C Pearson (M Vaughan 56).
Scorers: P Burke 1-1, P Mannion (0-2f), C Pearson 0-2, C Dias 0-1.
Referee: D Gough (Meath).
THEIR faces say it all. Mullinalaghta’s Conor and Donal McElligott (right) celebrate one of the greatest shocks in club football history after the Longford men beat Dublin giants Kilmacud Crokes by 1-8 to 1-6 to win the Leinster club senior football title at O’Connor Park in Tullamore yesterday. It was the first time a Longford club had won a provincial title and the odyssey continues in February when they take on Kerry’s Dr Crokes in the All-Ireland semi-final on February 16.