- OUR PARTNERS
Great game today in sunny Porterstown Park. It was the first league game of 2015 and Castleknock were ready for the first whistle. All 11 players were there - some of them had new boots (right Dawide!). Castleknock started off superbly with some great passing moves. They were creating some great chances and hit the post twice in the first 10 mins (Conor Coughlan and Adam Geraghty). They kept going forward and created more chances but also found the St Kevin's goalkeeper in good form. Finally they broke the deadlock - Bradley Creighton took the ball out of defence and had a quick one-two with Adam in the middle of the park - Bradley drove towards the box and smashed the ball to the far post where Jack Murphy was there to slot it home.
Castleknock continued to dominate and after some good play between Dylan Osborne and Cian da Costa on the right, Cian crossed to Jack who controlled it and slotted home from just inside the box. Great play and 2-0 up.
Now it was the turn of St Kevin's to come back at Castleknock....Dawide had to make 2 good saves but then St Kevin's got a good goal with a nice bit of individual play even though he had 3 Castleknock defenders around him. 2-1 at half time.
The second half started with both teams trying to play good football with some nice passing. Jack was now in goals and had to be alert to stop a good effort from St Kevin's. Chesney Moniz and Adam were defending well but Kevin's managed to get the equaliser despite Jack's attempted save. Positional changes followed for Castleknock and they came back at St Kevin's. After a break from defence Lee Canavan kept going down the right wing and crossed the ball perfectly for Adam who controlled it well before steering the ball past the diving goalie. It had been end to end stuff and St Kevin's bounced back almost immediately to break into the box and slot home an equaliser : 3-3.
The game could go either way now but with some tough defending from Ethan O'Reilly and Dylan Osborne, and heroics from Jack in goal, throughout the second half, Castleknock were holding firm. Now it was time for Castleknock to go on the attack. Evan Ryan had 2 chances following excellent play that went just past the post. Cian, Bradley and Adam were in midfield now and St Kevin's were finding it hard to get out from their own goal kicks - but in the dying minutes, the chance came for Celtic. After an interception by Cian. he put Evan through, and the big striker slotted home superbly past the advancing keeper. The final whistle went shortly after that and 4-3 for Castleknock. In fairness, this was a game balanced on a knife edge, and it was a great determination and lots of skill, coupled most importantly with great team work, that saw Celtic take all 3 points. A great advert for the game, and the referee summed it up as we left the field, "that was a great game of football". Indeed it was and played in a marvellous spirit by all. Well done boys!!!
