Castleknock Celtic 3 – 3 Knocklyon Utd

“ Esse Hat –trick claims share of spoils”

On a fine September morning Celtic welcomed Knocklyon Utd. Celtic, with a new look squad, had started the season 

well the previous week with a fine performance on their 7-a-side debut. Knocklyon were the visitors this week and 

arrived in no mood to let Celtic have an easy day.

Knocklyon started well and their structured play and quick movement had Celtic in trouble from the off. Within 5 

minutes Celtic were a goal down when Knocklyon created a 2 V 1 and finished in style. It was all Knocklyon and only 

strong defending by Ben Forde and Ryan Sherlock together with a couple of great saves by Max Ostapchuk kept the 

 It looked as if it could be a long day. However against the run of play Celtic scored when Ryan Mc Gregor fed Esse 

Okirikpo out right. Okirikpo used his pace to beat the defender and touch the ball past the Knocklyon keeper. All 

of a sudden Celtic were back in the game and nearly took the lead when a Luke Hughes free kick was just touched 

The second half started the same as the first with Knocklyon taking the game to Celtic and within five minutes were 

3-1 up with the third goal most disappointing as the Celtic midfield never worked back. However they make these 

Celtic Boys hard and the Boys dug deep to battle back into the game. Gerard Crawley and Evan mc Grath brought 

balance to the left while Andrei was battling heroically in defence. As the game wore on Daniel Moore, on up front, 

continued to work tirelessly and his pressurising of the Knocklyon defence finally paid off as Celtic got back into the 

game. The skilful Harry Maxwell fed Esse who did what he does well with a fine finish. 2-3. All of a sudden it was all 

Celtic and it was no surprise when they equalised. Esse ran onto a Hughes through ball before being “sandwiched” 

by the two Knocklyon players. Esse dusted himself off to fire home the resulting penalty. In the last minute Celtic 

nearly stole it forcing a wonderful save from the Knocklyon keeper.

FT: 3-3 and in truth a draw was a fair result. Both teams played their hearts out and should go home happy with their 

performances. We may not have had the goals of last week but a draw against a very good Knocklyon outfit has to 

be seen as a good performance. Esse may have grabbed the headlines with his wonderful hat-trick but there were 

heroes everywhere none more so than the young Jaime Carragher (aka Ben Forde). Well done all.