- OUR PARTNERS
Another great day for Celtic’s team who were given a very stern test today against a visiting Knocklyon Utd. It was the late fixture on the card scheduled to start at 1.30pm in Porterstown Park. By this time, the dark clouds laden with hailstones as big as marbles had headed out to sea, and lovely afternoon sunshine brightened up the contest.
Celtic were the first to threaten in an evenly contested league game. James Bannerman broke free 2 minutes into the game, but he was denied by the Knocklyon keeper who was to make many important saves. Conor Lawless and Ibrahim Hussein were the full backs for this game, with Ren Mulligan in front of them linking the defence to the midfield. Behind them was Theo Hennessy who was again on duty between the sticks in the absence of Ahmed Niazi who is recovering well and hopes to be back next month. We were delighted to see Ahmed who came along to the game to support his team mates with his Dad Amir.
In the middle of the park Rei Mulligan was on the right hand side and he was on fire today with a lot of possession and distributing the ball. Ruben Ahern was having his best game and put in many important tackles and clearances.
Up front James was joined Mohamed in the attack and they were to combine well for Celtic’s breakthrough.
Conor Lawless ventured forward on 13 minutes to support his midfield and his shot at goal was defended successfully. 7 minutes later Celtic got their reward for battling strongly to gain the upper hand. James fought for the ball on the left in the final third, and he deftly shifted the ball to Mohamed who cleverly slipped the ball to Rei 15 yards from goal. The midfielder picked his spot in the bottom right corner, he took aim, and he rifled home. Soon after James Bannerman was again showing his attacking prowess and went within a whisker of getting a second but was again denied by the keeper.
Knocklyon hit back and went close to scoring which was only prevented by some desperate defending by Celtic in the 6 yard box. The half time whistle went and Celtic were 1-0 ahead.
The second half continued to be very keenly contested and Knocklyon were going close to getting level. But it was Celtic who doubled their lead 15 minutes after the break. James was again involved and his cross into the box was met by Ren Mulligan who made sure that his shot found the back of the net.
5 minutes later Knocklyon got their reward for their unrelenting efforts as their striker seized on the ball as it went loose in the Celtic box. Just one goal separated the sides now.
5 minutes from time the Knocklyon keeper was pressed into action and had to save to keep his side in it. At the other end, Knocklyon pressed hard for an equaliser and one shot looked like it had to hit the net. But Theo in goal made a magnificent save to ensure that his side got the 3 points from this clash between two very evenly matched sides. It was extremely difficult to pick a man of the match, but in the end we chose Rei for his superb all-round performance.
Finally, we would like to pass on our best wishes to our Norwegian viewers who like to keep in touch with their grandson’s progress with Celtic. more match action
