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Celtic Need Extra Time to Kill off Killester
Hillary Cup Preliminary Round
Killester Utd 2 - 2 Castleknock Celtic (FT). Celtic win 3-2 After Extra Time
Celtic’s Under-12A side made it safely through to the first round proper of the Hillary Cup on Saturday, defeating Killester United 3-2 in extra time at Maypark. Killester were recent recruits to the Under-12A DDSL league and Celtic knew they were in for a stern test as the home side had started with a 100% record in the league, winning four out of four so far.
On a cold clear November afternoon Celtic battled hard throughout the first half which was a tight, sometimes scrappy affair. Killester had the better of the chances in the first period and Celtic keeper and captain for the day, Konrad Fecowicz, was the busier of the 2 keepers. Clear chances were thin on the ground and the half ended 0-0.
In the second half, Celtic played the better football as space opened up allowing the Celtic midfielders, Ciaran Murtagh, Ben McDonagh, Brian Carolan, Jatin Ramesh, Scott Soraghan and Ben Nolan, to wrestle control of the match. Celtic were rewarded when Eryk Fecowicz broke free on the right, advancing into the box and delivering an assured finish to put the visitors one up. Killester upped their game and pressed for the equaliser allowing Celtic to snatch a second somewhat against the run of play. A long kick out from Konrad Fecowicz was met by Cillian Hegarty who back-heel flicked the ball, on the turn, past the defence and the oncoming keeper. The Killester keeper realising his mistake turned to chase the ball as it bounced goalwards but his efforts were in vain and Celtic were two up with ten minutes to play. A few minutes later Cillian Hegarty was unlucky not to close out the game with a third when he cleverly lobbed the keeper from the edge of the box but the ball came back off the post and Celtic were denied.
Killester threw everything at Celtic as they had nothing to lose, and were rewarded when they pulled one. Their tails up, Killester pressed again and got the equaliser which, on the balance of play, was probably deserved.
A tight closing couple of minutes failed to produce a winning goal so into extra time it was. As was the case for large periods of the match, there was nothing between the teams in the additional period and somewhat unfortunately for Killester, it took an own goal by the United centre half to win it for Celtic when penalties loomed - the unlucky Killester defender poked the ball back and beyond his keeper when under pressure from Cillian Hegarty on the edge of the box.
Overall a keenly contested Cup tie played in the right spirit by two teams who will both surely challenge for honours as the season progresses. A great result and Celtic advance into the next round. Well done lads a gutsy steely team performance again.
