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After last season's adventures at U12, the Boys in Green began their pre-season at the Volkswagen Junior Masters Football Tournament in the AUL at Clonshaugh.
The event was wonderfully organised by Shane Supple of Legacy Sports Consultants and thanks to the sponsorship of VW and Umbro all the teams were supplied with full kit and match balls. With all the great preparation it was only natural to expect the tournament to live up to the hype and so it did with great football and great punctuality.
Teams were represented from all over Ireland with the Wicklow, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Kildare and Limerick Premier league winners in attendance while Dublin was strongly represented by Premier giants Crumlin, St Francis and Cabinteely.
As for Celtic they started off their campaign against Wicklow league champions, Arklow Town. The Boys looked a bit rusty at the start of the game against a hard working Arklow who had scored on their only attack of the first half. Despite dominating the second half it took a great individual goal from Antonio Neto in the last minute to secure a point. Next up were St Pats Boys who ran into a Castleknock whirlwind and were hit for 8 with the mecurial Ciaran Collins, Aaron Long ,Leigh Reilly and Neto among the goals. The last game of the day saw the Boys again in top form with a fine win over Ballymun.
Having started the day as rank outsiders Castleknock were thrilled to top their Group and qualify for a Group winners Semi Final against the mighty St Francis on Sunday morning.
After overnight torrential rain the pitches on the Sunday morning were soft to say the least and the Coaches were met with 14 smiling faces ( a few aches and pains too!!!). St Francis were hot favourites having reached the last four of the SFAI Cup but this Castleknock team had created a few shocks in the past and were clearly up for the game. Castleknock gained the initiative from the off – dominating midfield with St Francis on the back foot throughout the first half where Celtic played with the aid of a light wind. However despite dominating Celtic were limited, thanks to some excellent St Francis defensive work, to only one real goal scoring chance where a Mark Hughes free kick was met with a smart save. The second half saw St Francis gain an upper hand. Celtic were being hampered by a freshened wind which hampered them clearing even 20 yards from kick outs. Despite this Celtic were good value for the inevitable penalty shootout but were punished with less than 2 minutes left from a Francis break down the left where a nicely flighted cross was met with a top class finish by the young striker. FT: 1-0.
A defeat but an excellent performance nonetheless. Losing to a team like St Francis is no shame and the Boys should take great confidence from their performance as the season start approaches.
A big well done to the Boys and also to our gracious hosts Legacy Sports Consultants, VW Group and Umbro for inviting Castleknock Celtic to this well organised fun event.
