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Cabinteely make Celtic pay for lethargic performance as spoils shared
There was something surreal about a 9.15am KO – an early start as the Nation prepared for Ireland’s World Cup V New Zealand. Castleknock, despite not having won a game this season, arrived in a positive frame of mind following recent strong displays and their start showed it. In the first 5 minutes they had forced 3 corners and two saves from the Cabinteely keeper the latter a fine save from a lovely volley from Luke Hughes. It appeared that the visitors were in for a long day.
However as we have seen before in football ,games can change in a flash. Cabinteely won a freekick just inside the Celtic half. A nice ball was played in but Castleknock defence did their best version of “freeze” allowing the Cabo forward to fire home unchallenged. 0-1. No reason to panic but that’s just what Celtic did. Erratic passing, poor tackling and a defence that were all over the place saw Cabinteely start to dominate as they moved the ball with intelligence and purposes. Celtic may have had more possession but there was no intelligence to their play once they entered the final third of the pitch. At the other end Phelim Scott made a fine save as the Celtic defence were again exposed by a slick Cabo attack. HT: 0-1
At half time the message was clear – tighten up at the back and attack with pace. Had the Boys listened? We had our answer very quickly and the Answer was a definitive NO. From a Celtic attack the Cabinteely right full played the ball out right to the unmarked midfielder. The youngster played the ball down the wing as the Celtic midfield stood still. The attacker rounded the Celtic defender with ease and placed the ball past Phelim with a tidy finish. 0-2. The Coaches re-acted by putting Evan Maxwell in defence as Jaden went up front and Luke back into midfield. If nothing else it shook up the home team who showed more appetite if not quality.
With 15 minutes of the half gone Celtic pulled a goal back. Abdullah Boujerdha played a lovely through ball to James Browne who lifted the ball past the advancing keeper. 1-2 and game on. Celtic pushed and pushed and were rewarded with 13 minutes left. A ball was played in from the left to young Stephen Kane whose awareness and deft touch set up Adam Flynn who hit a gem of a shot from 20 yards into the roof of the net. 2-2.
Credit to Castleknock as they pushed for the winner. A Jaden header went close before another lovely shot from Adam flew just over. Keane has two penalty shouts denied as he weaved his way into the box but it wasn’t to be as Cabinteely saw out the game. FT: 2-2.
Credit to Cabinteely who in possession showed good composure and were the more purposeful in possession. While Castleknock’s possession may have suggested they deserved a win their performance did not. In the second half we saw plenty of effort and guile but little quality. Like Ireland it was a bad day for the Celts. They just never got going. A team does not become successful overnight nor does it become poor overnight. Essentially this was just a bad day at the office. This team have potential and they are not far off delivering on it. One thing we can say about our Celts is that they have character. Once again they came from behind and it took great character to retrieve a two goal deficit while not playing to their best. As we say there is great potential here. More hard work on the training ground and the lads will get their just rewards.
