Our under 16's welcomed Mullingar Athletic to Whitegates this afternoon in the SFAI south Leinster semi final and if it was action you were looking for this game had it all. Mullingar took the lead on ten minutes after some sloppy defending. Rovers were pressing and pressing but not really creating anything. Mullingar got their second after a long kick from the mullingar keeper was misjudged by Matthew Keene in the Rovers goal and their striker had an empty net to tap into. Unfortunate Matthew suffered a knee injury as a result and had to leave the field. Try as they might Rovers couldn’t find the break through and went in 2-0 down at the break. A big regroup and some changes totally changed the game in Rovers favour. Five minutes in Brandon Battams got Rovers back in the game when he headed in from a Lorcan Sinnott corner. Daniel Kavanagh entered the field with thirty minutes to go and was a constant threat to the Mullingar defence and should have put the game to bed with 3 or 4 good chances. The equaliser came in the seventy fifth minute. A ball swung in from the left went over all the defence and fell at the feet of Evan Conyard and the winger made no mistake to level the game drilling his shot into the far corner to spark wild celebrations. It finished 2-2 and extra time it was. Again Rovers hit the ground running and should have put the game to bed but just couldn’t find the back of the net. Brandon Battams had a great chance only for a world class save from the Mullingar keeper, Evan Conyard with a free kick off the crossbar and Kavanagh again had another great chance to win it. All square at full time and onto the dreaded penalty shootout. Alex Earls got the ball rolling when he dispatched the first, Jack Macklin tucked away the second before Eoghan Doyle made a great save to put Rovers in the driving seat. Daniel Kavanagh scored before the Mullingar player put his effort over the bar. Up stepped captain Lorcan Sinnott who dispatched his penalty to the top corner of the net to send Rovers through to the final and spark wild celebrations. A massive result for these young men whose never give up attitude is something to be admired. From front to back they were superb today and when they needed to stand up and be counted they did.