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Celtic continued their winning run when they had their fourth win on the spin away to Ballyoulster Utd. It was a tight contest from the start and either side could have gone in front. There was a real scare for Celtic after 11 minutes when the home side’s No.7 shot low and hard, but yet again for the umpteenth time this season, Ethan Hoey performed a fabulous save, this time with his right foot, and as the ball spun to the Ballyoulster No.11, the striker was just wide with his header.
Up the other end, it was Oleg Sinkevics who was unlucky to be just wide with his effort. On 16 minutes, Oleg was most unlucky when his chipped effort was again wide of the post. On 26 minutes, Oleg was not going to be denied, and he coolly slotted home into the bottom right hand corner, which separated the sides at half time.
Celtic resumed the second half on the front foot and were showing the form that has given them 3 wins on the bounce. They were in command at this stage. Oleg brought the best out in the home keeper. Cillian Garvey shot for goal without success, but a minute later, Calum Daly picked the ball up on the right. He skipped by a couple of challenges and his battling quality saw him follow up his initial effort before he flicked the rebound past the Ballyoulster keeper. 2-0
On the three-quarters mark of the game, Anthony Cooke shot just wide. Ballyoulster almost immediately scored when Ethan Hoey had no chance of stopping the shot.
Calum Daly got his second 13 minutes from time. Then with 8 minutes remaining, Anthony got his reward for his tenacity when he shot past the sprawling keeper.
With 3 minutes to go, Ballyoulster got a consolation goal to make it 1-4 to the visitors, but it was man of the match Calum Daly who “took home the match ball” when he slid the ball precisely past the diving keeper to put the seal on another victory, which sets them up nicely for their big matches after the May bank holiday. A 5-1 win away from home is a good day's work at any time.
You might think that this performance was all about the goal scoring. Far from it, Celtic had to be resolute throughout. Ethan kept the home side at bay early on. Jerome Powell looked very comfortable at right full early on, and has improved with every game this season. Brierton Murphy had the game of his life at the back, showing great tackling ability mixed with an electric turn of speed. Captain Cillian Garvey was again flawless, supported at left back by Andrew McGee who was relentless in pursuit of the action. Daniel Cryan gave his usual combative performance, challenging for every ball. Anthony Cooke again fought hard in the middle, and deserved his goal late on, and on another day, could have had a couple. Gavin Peters demonstrated his repertoire of skills, picking out incisive passes. The 2 front men, Oleg and Calum are untouchable at the moment and are a handful for any defence.
Well done to all for a great team performance and we look forward to honing the skills further at the next training session on Thurs next. There is no game on May bank holiday weekend when the top Premier teams, including Liverpool & Man Utd, will have their Elite Under-13s teams participating in the DDSL 75th Anniversary Tournament in Abbotstown beside the National Aquatic Centre, which is on Fri 4th May, Saturday & Sunday, That looks like an event not to be missed, so make sure you are there.
