- OUR PARTNERS
“ 6 Goal thriller sees honours shared in Templeogue ”
Celtic's young cubs travelled to Templeogue for their first game of 2015 excited at the prospect of playing Templeogue Utd while at the same time apprehensive given their recent promotion. It was a bitterly cold day but the spectacle provided by both these teams served to heat the coldest hands.
Castleknock started as if they were undaunted by the task ahead with their passing causing Templeogue problems. It wasn’t long before the Celts were one up. Ryan Mc Gregor, who was having his best game of the season, played a lovely early ball from defence to the ever alert Ryan Sherlock whose first time cross field ball found Evan Mc Grath who closed in on goal before coolly placing the ball into the bottom corner of the net. 1-0.
Despite the strong start the Celtic defence went to sleep allowing Utd to score a soft goal which gave the home side a lift. Minutes later it was 2-1 to Utd but if the first goal was a bit fortunate there was nothing fortunate about the second. The Number 10 showed good skill before hitting an unstoppable shot from 20 yards into the roof of the net. Templeogue’s tails were up and they looked for a third. Thankfully young Mc Gregor and Gerard Crawley were in fine form and manfully cleared their lines during a period of Templeogue dominance. Fresh legs were introduced and this helped Celtic regain their earlier territorial dominance. Soon it was 2-2 and this time Evan was the provider for Ryan (Sherlock) whose finish was sublime. HT: 2-2.
At half time all that the coaches could do was say to the Boys “More of the same lads”. And that's what they got despite conceding an early goal. Straight from the kick off a defensive error saw the Templeogue striker finish with ease. But back came Celtic with Ben Forde, who had been particularly quiet in the first half, on fire with his passing consistently putting the Utd defence under pressure. Like Ben, Essai Okirikpo was also on form in the second half and it was he got the equaliser following a great run that was matched by a quality finish 3-3.
With their tails up Celtic looked for a winner. They peppered the Utd goal and how they did not score is anyones guess. The Utd goalkeeper made some good saves but even he would admit he was possibly the luckiest keeper around as Luke Hughes, Ben, Essai, Daniel Moore and Ivan Hristov were all denied. Despite dominating Celtic nearly conceded a late goal when Utd broke and were denied first by the post, then by an off the line clearance and finally a great save from keeper, Max Ostapchuk. FT: 3-3
All in all a just scoreline given the efforts of both teams. The Castleknock coaches were well pleased with their charges who played some wonderful football and rightly earned a big cheer from their supporters at the end of the game. The Boys are learning quickly and each week they get stronger – we can ask for no more. Man of the match – it was hard to separate them so step forward and take a bow Ryan Mc Gregor and Evan Mc Grath who both had arguably their best games of the season thus far. Well done lads.
