Leinster League, Div 2A.

Shay Murtagh Park

Mullingar 29 Edenderry 20

By Finian Coghlan

For the second week in a row Mullingar dug it out at the death, and with the littlest of superiority the Mighty Quinn found a hole of opportunity in the dying embers to bag not just a bonus try but also to clip a lazy conversion to stymie Edenderry’s losing bonus point and put the home side into a neighbourhood of positive glory that suggests, perhaps, whilst they’re at it, this might be a bit of a year after all.

They showed their possibilities as soon as available and both Quinn and Mills were held up on the line in early exchanges.

First on the board were the visitors with a 14^th minute penalty, but Brabby and Daz danced their way into allowing Stewie an equalizer, and Mullingar enjoyed the front foot. Just back from an early yellow, Liddy chased a Flynn hoof on the half hour mark and got lucky with the bounce to stroll in for his sixth of the season. Again, both Quinn and Mills went close but for no cigar until Henno put a penno to the corner and the tall lads went to work.

Kim went high and brought it down for Mills to steer a second home in two weeks from the back of a classy rumble, and Mullingar to lead into the break 15-3.

It got better early in the second half when Quinn took on the line and unloaded an absolute peach of an underarm pass to the full galloping Maxwell  for his third of the season. Things now looked ominous for the visitors, but fair play to Edenderry they came back full on. In fairness, they would have been buried on the hour if Liddy’s intercept had stuck with Moore outside, but they stuck it up their traditional jumper to force a score in the 63^rd minute. Things seemed to come unstuck for the home side in the 74^th minute when talismanic Maxwell got a yellow, and they forced a carbon copy of their last score into the right corner to leave it at a two-point gap and game on. Then, in injury time Cathal Burke knocked a deep clip into their territory and the posse got the whiff. Trying to play out of his own in-goal area, the Edenderry scrum half got properly snaffled and dumped and Quinn was quickest on the detritus to bag the fourth bonus try. And to wipe ouch in their effort, he only went and spoilt their losing bonus point by drop kicking the conversion and put himself up there with the Daz man as only the second fellow in the club with a 100% kicking record.

Long road to New Ross next week, but if they can get over the travel sickness – and having to leave Mullingar at 9am for a 2pm kick off – they could look at 2018 with the bizarre possibility of promotion.

Team: 1.Johnny Moran, 2. Darren ‘Daz’ Brady, 3. Ben Glennon, 4. Darach Geraghty , 5. Daryl Quinn , 6.Kim Williams, 7. Paul Maxwell, 8. Nigel Mills, 9. Henry ‘Henno’ Reilly, 10. Stewie Flynn,  11. Cillian ‘Fish’ Daly, 12. Alan Brabazon, 13. Donal Liddy, 14. Eoin Moore, Johnny Butler. Subs used: Killian ‘Cheddar’ McNay, Cathal Burke, Sean Rock, Shane Raleigh.

Scorers:

Tries: Liddy, Mills, Maxwell, Quinn.

Pens: Flynn.

Cons:  Flynn (2), Quinn.

Club Try scorers (03.12.17): Eoin Moore (8), Nikki Feery (7), Donal Liddy, (6), Paul Maxwell, Ellen Taite, Paddy Daly  (3), Ruth Daniels, Muireann Scally, Dara Gorman, Katie Layde,  Darragh Lambe (2), Darach Geraghty, Ben Glennon, Niamh Kennedy, Cillian ‘Fish’ Daly, Danny Purcell, , Darren Loughrey, Alan Donoghoe, Colin Fallon, Robbie Cooney, Ross Tormey.