- OUR PARTNERS
A perfect autumn morning, the sun was shining and the surface – a wonderful Astro turf pitch - created a wonderful setting for this U10 clash. And both teams obliged by entertaining the crowd to a wonderful game of football.
Castleknock were looking to continue their recent good form and started off in explosive fashion to go one up in the first minute. The ball was played out left by Ben Forde to Ivan Hristov. Hristov and Luke Hughes exchanged one touch passes before the ball was played into the box where Harry Maxwell finished a la Cristiano Ronaldo with a first touch quality finish. This set the tone of play for the day – swift passing and movement. Chances came – Ivan hit the bar, Luke had two shots well saved and attacking full back Ryan Sherlock brought a wonderful save from the Leixlip keeper.
Celtic’s football and dominance finally paid off when Harry doubled his and Castleknock's tally. Luke played the ball into a crowded goal mouth where it finally fell to Ben. Surrounded by the opposition, Ben played a first time pass to the well positioned Harry who finished with aplomb.
Still Castleknock were hungry for more. It was like a scene from the Alamo as the Leixlip players put their bodies on the line. With minutes remaining in the half Celtic finally scored a third. Again Harry Maxwell or is that Harry Houdini, was involved this time threading a wonderful pass through to the on running Ryan Mc Gregor who coolly side footed the ball home from 5 yards out. Such was Celtic's dominance that stand in keeper, Gerard Crawley did not touch the ball once in the half. HT: 0-3
At half time changes were made with regular keeper Max Ostapchuk, who had enjoyed a first half cameo outfield, going between the sticks with Gerard going to left mid. There may have been personnel and positional changes but it was more of the same. Ryan nearly scored his second and “Messi” Hughes hit the inside of the post but saw the ball squirt across the goal and away to safety. Credit to Leixlip for never giving up and while Celtic continued to dominate Leixlip were proving a threat on the break. Thankfully the impressive Daniel Moore, Ryan (S) and Ivan were in no mood to give anything away and their strong tackling was a feature in the second half. More chances came for Celtic but it was Leixlip who scored with a late consolation goal in the last minute. FT: 1-3
And so a win but it was the performance that will have pleased the coaches. The Club motto is “To be the Best you can Be” and to do that you need to give your best and today that’s what 9 Castleknock lads did. And the result was their best performance of the season – their positioning, awareness and quick passing particularly in the first half was at times breathtaking.
While all nine players deserve great praise the performance of Harry Maxwell deserves special mention. There was a program on TV many years ago in the 80’s (I might add before this Reporter was born :))) called “Harry’s Game” and today this was HARRY’s GAME. How apt that we are in the season of Witches & Wizards as like the famous Harry Potter, today, young Maxwell was the magician with his right foot his magic wand. Today he had it all, twisting, weaving, passing shooting ala Cristiano Ronaldo. If young Harry keeps this up there will, in the future, be a lot of kids wearing Maxwell No 7 on the back of their jersey. Well done Harry “Potter”. Well done all. Have a great Halloween.
