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When the fixtures were announced Celtic knew it would be a tough assignment as they would face the experienced and proven Lucan Utd . Having been advised late the night before that the fixture was being brought forward Celtic’s preparations were further rocked with the news that the injured Cathal Flynn would be joined on the sideline by veteran Dylan Mc Donagh while Ciaran Collins was still nursing a hamstring strain. Down to the bare eleven although Collins, to his credit, would tog out if needed this had “banana skin” written all over it especially given the calibre of the opposition.
Celtic started well and scored early on with arguably the through ball of the season. Alex Doyle broke forward from defence to thread a magnificent weighted pass to the on running Leigh Reilly who finished with aplomb. 1-0. Minutes later it was 2-0 , this time Aaron Rice went down the right before playing a dangerous cross across the box which was met by the Enache Express as Andrei powered home a header following a 25 yard run. Two up with 10 minutes on the clock but ironically this disrupted Celtic as players starting losing position allowing Lucan back into the game. As a contest the game was probably decided by a questionable Referee decision. Lucan who had come back well and dominated possession for a period thought they had scored when their winger struck a shot from the left edge of the box that beat Thomas Bowe but clipped the underside of the bar. In fairness to the Referee he could not see if the ball had fully crossed the line and therefore could not award the goal although most observers thought it was a goal. This seemed to deflate Lucan and Castleknock, who had ridden their luck, regained their composure and began to dominate again. Chances came with Antonio Neto and Enache coming clode before Reilly thought he had added a third but his effort was disallowed for a questionable offside decision. HT: 0-2
The Celts adjusted their formation to a flat 4-4-2 and with this their dominance grew. Soon after it was 3-0 when a lovely weighted pass by Mark Hughes found Reilly who had beaten the offside trap and had all the time in the world to score his second. Chances came with Reilly unfortunate not to complete a deserved hat trick as twice he was foiled by the Lucan keeper and when he did find the net again the effort was again disallowed for offside.
Soon it was four. The ball was played from defence where the alert Hughes played a first time pass to Neto on the right. Neto’s defence splitting pass was just too long for Kian Ryan but Kiano’s persistence paid off as his pressure forced a goalkeeping error allowing the youngster to finish for a deserved goal. 0-4.
Four goals to the good and Celtic could relax allowing them to play their best football. Hughes, Ciaran Collins and Neto all came close and Enache hit two “stingers” to warm the Lucan keepers hands. With minutes remaining Neto made it five with a solo goal following a poor Lucan clearance that allowed the winger to weave his magic and finish with ease. FT: 0-5
An excellent win for Celtic against a gallant Lucan team. Do not be fooled by the scoreline Lucan are a strong outfit who just came up short against an in form Celtic. Aside from some quality play and some excellent goals the Coaches will have been impressed by the performance of their defence unit where Franc Ajunomah, Matthew Elliott, Alex San Emeterio, and Alex Doyle put in arguably their respective best performances of the season to date. The Dirty Dozen did the business today but when the Celts finally have their full squad back there will be some battle for places. Well done lads – keep the run going.
