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Celtic entertained the visiting league leaders Portmarnock who had won their first 3 games and were hot favourites for this game. Celtic had only 2 training sessions together before this game, having been formed only a week or so ago. Caretaker manager did not know what to expect, but he was hugely impressed by what followed and the 1-0 victory.
Celtic competed for every ball and never gave the Portmarnock players time on the ball. It was a very entertaining game with the play flowing from end to end. Theo Hennessy was guest goalkeeper for Celtic in the first half, stepping from his Under-9 team for which he plays on a Saturday. He was in splendid form and dealt competently with every shot that Portmarnock could manufacture. Ren Mulligan, Joseph Dunne and Ibrahim Hussein were dominant in defence, while Tadhg Leahy did not give the opponents an inch, using his body strength to hold off attackers, which is something he has learned from playing the other football code. Cosdel Burlacu and Pedro Minero were immense in the middle of the park and stopped many of the Portmarnock attacks from developing. Pedro’s skills on the ball were a joy to watch. Up front we had James Bannerman who fought hard to gain possession on the ball and went close on a few occasions to scoring. Ruben Aherne did well as he chased the ball and pressurized the opposition in his first game. The golden moment in the game came mid way through the second half when Ren Mulligan sent through the perfect pass to John Ogumtuase. John still had much to do, but he raced forward with the ball and just as the keeper was about to block him, John shot low and hard which sent the supporters wild on the touch line. Well done John, and his goal probably made him a candidate for man of the match. But it was given to Ren Mulligan who gave a superb display of footballing skills, tackling well as he used his upper body strength which he has perfected, beating players, distributing the ball, and never stopping for a breather. Well done to Ren for his award, and to the rest of the team on the day for a brilliant first game. See you all at training on Thursday at 6.30pm.
