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Castleknock travelled to Lucan this week hoping to continue their winning run of recent weeks. On a windy day, against a physically competitive Lucan side, it was always going to be a difficult encounter. Lucan started brightly and it was soon evident that they had real pace up front and created a couple of good early chances but failed to convert. However Castleknock soon settled in to their game and started to create some good chances themselves. Leon Girigan and Thomas Balogun were starting to cause problems for the Lucan defence and went close with a couple of chances. The Lynch twins in midfield were having to work hard in this game and they continued to switch play to both wings where Bode Lisoka and Ben Fleming were in sparking form this week. The breakthrough goal for Castleknock came from some good play down the right flank when Bode Lisoka provided a fine cross to Leon Girigan who stroked the ball home from six yards. Soon afterwards, some more excellent play from the opposite left flank saw Ben Fleming create another good opportunity for Leon. He did well to finish the opportunity despite stumbling to the ground first. Leon was unlucky not to complete his hat-trick shortly afterwards when he showed terrific pace to latch on to a poor backpass from a Lucan defender and just shot wide of the post. 2-0 to Celtic at half time.
In the second half Castleknock were playing in to a strong wind and Lucan were using the pace of their forwards to create opportunities. However Sean Balogun and Patrick Balogun were simply outstanding and showed a terrific work ethic and hard tackling to repel the dangerous Lucan forwards. Meanwhile their partners in defence, Sebastian McMahon and Alex Murphy were immense throughout the game, particularly in the second half and made a series of crucial interceptions to maintain a clean sheet for Celtic. On the rare occasions when Lucan managed to evade Bassy or Alex, then Eoghan Kearney in goal showed courage and intelligence to come off his line to nullify any danger.
Gareth Healy and Ahmed Khalid were linking up well for Castleknock in the second half and a final opportunity to deliver the coup de grace fell to Ahmed, who scored with a terrific volley from the edge of the Lucan penalty area. The game finished 3-0 to Castleknock, who have won their last three games in succession. Congratulations to every boy in the squad.
