Mountmellick prevail after goal-fest with Rosenallis

Rosenallis were left to rue a whole host of missed opportunities, as they fell at home to neighbours Mountmellick United on Sunday afternoon. Mountmellick three times came from behind to come away from the game with all three points.

This was the first big derby of the season in the upper echelons of Laois football. Both sides began their league campaigns against Coolraine, with Rosenallis picking up a draw away from home in the opening game, while Mountmellick were 3-2 winners at home to the Offaly side last week.

Mountmellick Utd 5 

Rosenallis 3 

Mountmellick started brightly and created three good scoring opportunities in the first ten minutes - Shane O'Connell, Mark Grennan and Robbie Hibbitts all hitting the target The hosts then sprung into life and almost had the ball in the net twice in as many minutes, first through Conor Conroy and then Ethan Morris.

It was a beautiful morning in Rosenallis, with both sides looking to take advantage of the conditions, playing ambitious, attacking football. 

The hosts opened the scoring in the 25th minute when Conor Conroy played a lovely ball into the box for Charlie Friel who's finish rippled Mick Spain's net. Friel almost double the lead straight from the kick-off, but Spain got down just in time to prevent the ball from squirming under his body. 

Mountmellick were level just five minutes later, however. Robbie Hibbitts pinged a great ball across the box which Rosenallis failed to deal with, allowing Eoin George to fire a left-footed strike past Paddy Dunne.

It was end to end for the rest of the half, with both sides coming close, but it ended all square at the break.

Mark Grennan almost put the visitors ahead just after the restart, but saw his header drift agonisingly over the crossbar. 

John Molloy replaced Niall Doolin in the 51st minute, coming straight in for an attacking free. His first touch of the game was to flick the ball on to Conor Conroy, who steered it past Spain to put Rosenallis back in front.

But as they did in the first half, Mountmellick got themselves level just five minutes after conceding, as Shane O'Connell got on the end of a Conor Comiskey corner. But it was then Mountmellick's turn to concede right after scoring, when Ethan Lawlor brought down Adam Finlay in the box.

Charlie Friel took the responsibility and converted his penalty to make it 3-2. Friel had two huge chances to grab his hat-trick after scoring, but with quarter of an hour to go, Mountmellick were level again.

Robbie Hibbitts gathered the ball in the box and made no mistake, placing it into the bottom corner. Ten minutes later Mountmellick were ahead. Substitute Luke O'Connor whipped in a fine ball, which Eoin George sent into the top corner with a thunderous header.

Rosenallis had more than enough chances to equalise at the end, but conceded a fifth in the last seconds of the game. Throwing everything they had at Mountmellick, goalkeeper Paddy Dunne came up - and stayed up - for a late flurry of corners.

Dunne did get on the end of one, but when his opposite number got his hands on the ball, Spain launched it up field, where Luke O'Connor was on hand to take a touch and finish into an empty net.

It is a second high-scoring win for Mountmellick, who are certainly making this an exciting start to the season.