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Castleknock Celtic FC 1 – 3 St Kevin’s boys
“Lapses either side of half time cost Castleknock in an otherwise even encounter”
A beautiful summer evening in Porterstown Park as U16 Premier 1 took on league leaders St Kevin’s Boys. Despite being beaten 8-0 in the reverse fixture at the start of the season, the “Hoops” felt positive following recent performances that included three wins on the bounce.
Noticeable absentees through injury included Paul O’Neill, the “trickster” Nathan O’ Reilly and “keeps its nice and simple” Aaron Byrne. Despite Sean Blood opening his goal scoring account with a 30-yard screamer in the previous game, he too had to sit out the start of the game due to an on-going issue with his knee. The rest of the bench comprised Claudio Limola, Mel Lebo and Liam Fitzgerald.
Feeling they could catch the Saints cold, the game plan was simple; get their back four turned towards their own goal and press hard in behind. It could not have started any better and it was clear that Kevin’s were in a game. Debutant Plamedie Bazeyi received the ball out wide on the right and decided he was going to attack the left full. Cutting into the box, he squared the ball back to the oncoming Ciaran Delaney who, 14 yards out from goal, tried to place his shot in the far left corner. Unfortunately, he put too much bend on the ball narrowly missing the target. An excellent opportunity gone.
Heartened by the positive start and with Kevin’s slightly shell shocked, Celtic kept the pressure up. With 10 minutes on the clock, Bazeyi controlled a forward ball; with his back to goal, he decided to lay the ball back into the path of Mark Hughes. With imperious precision, Hughes clipped the ball in behind the Kevin’s centre half. Leigh Reilly ghosted in behind and, after a quick touch to settle, he placed the ball to the keeper’s right hand side for his fifth goal in four games. 1-0 Celtic !!!!!!
The game ebbed and flowed from end to end for the next 29 minutes. There was nothing to separate the teams. As one expects at this level, space on the pitch was hard to find and each ball contested aggressively.
However, a moment of indecision on the stroke of half time resulted in St. Kevin’s being awarded a soft free kick on the left hand side of the Castleknock box. The Saints right full swung the free kick in towards the Hoops goal and with bodies running across the eye line of Tommy Bowe, the ball found its way into the far corner of the Castleknock goal. A sucker punch gave Kevin’s something from nothing and the sides went in all square at the break.
The message at half time was simple; stick to the plan and expect that Kevin’s will start quicker and sharper in the second half.
Claudio Limola was introduced at half time in place of Josh Buckley. Buckley can take positives from his performance in the first 40 minutes and management explained the intention to re-introduce later in game when he had sufficient time to recover from his first half exertions. The change meant that the ever reliable Garcia Zambrano was moved to right full, Dylan “the machine” McDonagh moved back to left full and Reilly Jnr moved to the left side of the 3 man attack which was now spear headed by Claudio. However, with Eric Hanlon complaining of a hamstring strain, management knew a further change was required almost immediately such that Claudio moved back into midfield and Blood introduced to lead the line.
The second half started as bad as one can imagine. A second defensive lapse resulted in a sliced clearance falling perfectly at the feet of the Saint’s No. 9. Not needing a second invitation, the until now starved striker, powered the ball low and hard past the helpless Bowe. In the 5 minutes either side of half time, the game had turned on its head. Celtic trailed SKB 1-2.
SKB were now on top and began to dominate possession. With Celtic hanging on, Liam Fitzgerald replaced the tired Bazeyi with 25 minutes left on the clock. The fresh legs assisted Celtic’s press such that a back pass from the Saints centre half which was chased down hard by Blood resulted in Blood getting a great block on the Keepers attempted clearance. Unfortunately, Celtic did not get the bounce of the ball and SKB survived.
Chasing the game, Celtic went to 3-5-2. While goal-scoring opportunities were rare, Limola had a half chance from second ball on a Corner. Unfortunately, however, the ball would not drop quickly enough and the opportunity passed as he shot over the bar. Delaney had the best chance to level from another set piece. However, while he managed to keep the ball low, his volley attempt went narrowly wide.
With minutes to go and Celtic chasing the game, SKB broke away. Thanks to a huge slice of luck following a superb one on one save from Bowe and tremendous (had no right to make) block from Garcia they sealed victory as a third rebound dropped kindly for them at the edge of the box and they managed to place the ball in the left hand corner of Bowe’s goal. Celtic 1-SKB 3.
While not the finish we all wanted, Celtic need to take positives from this first half of the season. Management pointed to the positive performances since that first game of the season and especially the final five games (which included two loses).
An assessment of the season to date (excluding Game 1 v SKB);
- 1.Deserved winners versus Athlone Town
- 2.Deserved winners versus Cabinteely
- 3.3 points over two games versus Belvedere is a fair reflection of two games
- 4.We can really have no complaints for results versus Home Farm (1-0 loss and 4-2 loss).
- 5.We feel we left two if not 4 or even 6 points behind against Crumlin. In both games;
- a.we completely dominated first half and created numerous really good chances; and
- b.in evenly matched second halves, we conceded two poor goals between the 68th and 80th minute of both matches
- c.A point last night versus SKB was well within our reach had it not been for that crucial period before and after half time.
U16 Prem-1 look forward to strengthening squad in the off-season and to pre –season (starting 30 July).
The players have been told that they are to assume responsibility for their fitness and conditioning over the break to ensure they attain maximum benefit from pre-season. There is no reason why this group cannot go unbeaten in second half of season.
