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match photo action later
A cracking game entertained the crowd who turned up for the DDSL Under-14’s Hollywood Cup between Castleknock Celtic and Liffey Valley Rangers on a blustery afternoon with lots of vicious showers – and that was just the spectators.
Celtic had just finished their league programme, finishing in runners-up position which guarantees them promotion to A-football, while Rangers are still battling for the top spot in the B-division. It was going to be a close contest for sure and so it proved to be.
The first half was very competitive, but it was Rangers who looked more likely to gain the advantage. Having said that, it was Celtic who went close when Jay Harper battled to the end line on 15 minutes before crossing into the box, but the chance went a-begging. It was then the turn of Rangers whose Yoshida Ilunga broke through from the middle of the park and shot into the corner of the goal, but Stephen Mason dived full length to push the ball wide. They remained all square at the break.
5 minutes after the restart, it was Celtic who made the breakthrough. David Onitiu went on one of his trademark runs leaving the full back in his wake. As he raced into the box, he appeared to be impeded but he nevertheless got his cross into the box, only to see the chance missed. A free kick on the left of the penalty area followed soon after, which Jay Harper was mustard keen to taken on. He shot powerfully into the roof of the net, despite the best efforts of the Rangers’ keeper David Ward. Advantage to the Dublin 15 club. Celtic went close to doubling their advantage when Morgan Kynes thumped his shot off the crossbar and somehow it stayed out. Rangers continued to create chances and hit the woodwork at least 3 times during the second half. With 10 minutes remaining they finally got their reward when Ilunga rounded the defenders, as he had done many times during the afternoon, and sent his shot into the corner of the goal off the foot of the post.
Extra time then saw Celtic gain the decisive advantage. The ball fell kindly for Morgan, and this time he made no mistake when he shot low and hard into the far left hand corner of the net. Despite heroic efforts by Rangers, they were not to get any reward and they had to settle for heart-felt ‘hard-luck’ from the Celtic management and players. On another day, the result could have been different, but you have to congratulate Celtic for grinding out a result despite playing below their best. On Rangers’ side, while Ilunga was inspirational, they also missed their speedy striker Corneille Temba through injury. They will have to recover from this disappointment before resuming their league title challenge.
It is a very difficult job in the circumstances to pick a Celtic man of the match, however Jabari, for his endless efforts in the middle of the park, and Conor O'Leary, who marshalled his defence throughout, are joint winners in this reporter's opinion.
Finally congratulations are due to the management team of Paul Mason, Oleg Girbu and Marius Onitiu for their driving commitment to this team throughout recent seasons which has seen them promoted in successive seasons and win the Cup 2 years on the trot.
