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Yes, they all lost today.
Missed chances prove costly as Celtic go down against Quarryvale.
It was a tough start to the 2nd half of the season for Castleknock U11 E away to Quarryvale. After promotion from E1 the step up in quality caught Celtic cold from the first kick off. 1-0 down after 1 minute. This happened in their last match, a friendly against Leixlip, and so something to work on for the next match. 9 players were in the match day squad led by Captain Declan O’M. Jesse O kept goal with Dylan T, Eoghan S & Richard O in defence, who were asked to keep possession and use Jesse as the extra man as required. Owen B, Dylan C, Declan O’M and Gideon D were the midfield masters tasked with recovery runs and Ross K the lone warrior up front, looking to hold up play for the on running midfield. Having conceded early on Castleknock grew into the game and started to push forward. However a quick counter attack on the left wing on 10 minutes, and some defenders ran to the ball instead of marking the strikers and, given the freedom of the penalty box, BOOM their striker finished past Jesse 2-0.
Castleknock kept working hard and a THUNDERBOLT free kick by Dylan C cannoned off the crossbar and dropped invitingly on the line for Declan O’M to finished but unfortunately he skewed it wide. Credit to Castleknock they kept battling but Quarryvale were quicker and seemed to have more energy on and off the ball. A quick pass from the GK to their centre half and he was allowed run the length of the pitch without being tackled and finessed a fine goal. 3-0 and work to do. Gideon D provided the spark of energy on the right wing and a nice run ended when he found a killer pass to the on rushing Dylan C who broke from midfield. With Eoghan S in support it was 2 v the keeper. Dylan C, cool as you like POWERED the ball into the back of the net. 3-1 on the stroke of half time and still in the game.
Quarryvale again started the second half the quickest, a loose goal kick finished with a goal to Quarryvale. Before you knew it they had another 2 in the net. Quarryvale battled for everything but Castleknock stood up to the challenges and for the last quarter of the match it was Castleknock who bossed the match. Richard O, Gideon D and Ross K all missed great opportunities to score and I mean GREAT. IF you added up the distance of the 3 chances from the goal line you would get about 2 yards…. Go Figure! The good thing is they were in the right place and they were creating chances but failed to finish. Gideon then hit the post after a powerful run and a great piece of play. With Richard O breaking from defence, Gideon D spotted the opportunity, put on the afterburners, screamed “Richard, overlap, overlap” and Richard with a sublime pass into the space gave Gideon the opportunity to power on and was unlucky not to score with a fine shot off the post.
6-1 it finished. In a very competitive league now the players will need to take their chances and be a bit sharper when defending without the ball. That all starts with practice on Mondays and Wednesdays. "Train like a beast and then play like a beast”, or so says Bayern’s Manager and that will do for me. Lets hope this result is in keeping with all the other upsets today. These Castleknock boys are in good company with Man City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Southampton all losing swell so heads up and on we go. MOTM to Dylan C for doing best what was asked of in training, recovery runs. Well done boys and see you Monday.
