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The Castleknock U17’s may need counselling after this game as they seek to understand how they lost this game. Three up after 25 minutes they unravelled in the second half to effectively gift wrap the points to a hard working but hardly deserving Dunshaughlin.
Dunshaughlin started the better and forced two fine saves from Alex Regan. However once they settled Castleknock began to play their best football of the season so far. All the play was down the right where James Davy and Rob Laffey were showing great awareness. The first goal was the stuff of dreams. Slick passing and quick movement was the order of the day. Laffey won the ball in midfield and released Davy whose pace and skill allowed him exchange passes with Laffey before squaring the ball into Liam O’ Neill to blast home with a first time shot. Certainly one of the goals of the season and with it increased confidence.
Minutes later it was two – Davy won a corner which was played in by Narcis Catre. Martynas Gedonimas headed powerfully as the ball spun from the keeper O’ Neill did what all good strikers do and followed in to hit the rebound home. Shortly after Laffey almost made it three. Celtic were dominant with Gavin Keane controlling the middle of the pitch and it wasn’t long before it was three. Again Davy was involved and his carefully weighted pass to O’ Neill allowed the youngster to power home. A deserved hat-trick for O’ Neill and a deserved 3-0 lead to the dominant home team. Ironically withy the three nil lead Celtic became complacent as the players all wanted to launch forward to score. They were punished with 5 minutes of the half remaining when an under hit backpass allowed the Dunshaughlin striker to score an easy goal. HT: 3 – 1
Narcis Catre took over in goals but there was an air of over confidence that concerned the Coaches. Despite a strong start to the half Celtic conceded a terribly soft goal and to make it 3-2. In the season of witches and the undead Dunshaughlin sniffed blood . They now had belief and battled for every ball. Celtic were rocked and could not handle the hard tackling by the Dunshaughlin lads. Rather than reacting strongly Celtic lost their discipline resulting in three bookings all for dissent. Matters got worse when with 10 minutes left Dunshaughlin equalised and again it was a very poor defensive goal. No tackles and no effort. Both teams went for the winner and while Celtic saw two attempt from Omar Emara cleared off the line it was Dunshaughlin who stole the winner with minutes remaining. FT: 3-4.
A shockening result. Celtic will argue that the Referee played a hand in their defeat but in truth this loss was self inflicted. Celtic had been coasting and even at 3-1 and 3-2 had the chances to kill off the game. Rather they allowed themselves to lose their discipline and this allied with poor defending saw Dunshaughlin score from three of their five attempts in the second half. It was a real shame for Celtic as their first half performance was excellent and O’ Neills exquisite hat trick deserved to count for more.
Big lessons will have been learnt today by the Management. There is no doubting the ability or potential in this team but they must learn to show the right attitude and have a “WANT” to deliver at this level.
Today was a bad day at the office and let’s hope this ZOMBIE like second half performance was a one off.
