BRILLIANT MULLINALAGHTA IN CRUISE CONTROL

M’LAGHTA 2-15 ÉIRE ÓG 0-3

MULLINALAGHTA St Columba’s will face Kilmacud Crokes in the Leinster final after the Longford champions comfortably overcame a dismal Éire Óg outfit. Mullinalaghta will be the first Longford club to play in a Leinster final and if they can replicate this performance they won’t be too far off in the final. Éire Óg, on the other hand, were poor. They only managed to score three points while attempting to play with an ultra-defensive formation, with 12 men behind the ball at all times and a complete absence of a full forward line. Serious discipline is required to execute this tactic successfully and Éire Óg were dealt a major blow just before the interval when corner forward Ross Dunphy was dismissed after an altercation with Aidan McElligott which the linesman had seen and referee Anthony Nolan showed Dunphy a straight red card. Éire Óg missed an early goal chance with Christopher Blake’s goalbound effort saved with just six minutes played and it was Mullinalaghta who opened the scoring courtesy of Donal McElligott. Chris Blake equalised for Éire Óg, but five scores in succession gave Mullinalaghta a 0-6 to 0-1 interval advantage and Mullinalaghta would play with an extra man in the second half. It was going to be a long way back for Éire Óg after James McGivney found the net with 44 minutes played in the second half to leave the score-board reading 1-10 to 0-3 in favour of Mullinalaghta. Gary Rogers set up McGivney, who made no mistake with the finish although goalkeeper Robert Moore did get a hand to the ball. The game was effectively ended as a contest moments later, with Christopher Blake dismissed for two yellow card offences. Mullinalaghta had the ball in the net again before the full-time whistle, with Aidan McElligott getting on the end of Jayson Matthews’ delivery and fisting into an empty net to give his side a 13-point advantage. Robert Moore was shown a red card for an altercation with McElligott after the goal, which ensured the Carlow champions would play out the remainder of the contest with just 12 players. Mullinalaghta pushed on to score five further points and secure an 18 point victory, with Kilmacud Crokes awaiting the Longford kingpins in the decider.