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Celtic were attempting to extend their winning run to seven in a row on a beautiful Sunday afternoon by hosting Midlands club Athlone Town FC. Athlone started the day as league leaders and have a number of players going to their League of Ireland team next season so it was always going to be a hard task.
A strong and focused team was required today and that was what was delivered by the whole team who put in an incredible performance.
Celtic were quickly out of the blocks and Jeremy Mputu thought he had put his team ahead when he rifled a fabulous shot from an acute angle only to be adjudged offside (the ref said he felt bad ruling it offside as it was one of the best “goals” he had seen all season). It was however the visitors who got their noses in front when Neil Macken found the net with his effort on 20 minutes. This inspired the hosts to push on, it wasn't long before Jabari had a shot after some fantastic passing and slotted home to make it 1:1 at half-time.
More of the same was the Castleknock Celtic team talk and the hard work from Jabari Crichlow, Adam Russell, David Curran, Sean Hogan, Morgan Kynes (back from injury) and Dino Marcu paid off with 20 minutes to go when Jeremy Mputu turned on the edge of the box and fired into the bottom corner.
Celtic didn't stop there and tried in vain to put the game away, Jabari hitting the bar and missing from close range, Dino was in on goal when impeded by their keeper.
Celtic's defence had to endure a bit of an onslaught and had to be at their best to keep at bay Athlone, for whom John Rattigan and Macdara Geraghty had excelled throughout. In the last five minutes Athlone pushed hard for the equalizer. But Celtic were well up to the task dealing especially well with the long ball. Matthew Leonard, Ben Traynor, Vlad Skrypka, Jack D'arcy and goalkeeper Stephen Mason were in commanding form keeping the Athlone attack in check.
This team has improved immensely in the last few months, their work rate and passing is top class and this was a result which sends out the signal to other teams that Celtic are a force to be reckoned with and they are looking forward with relish to their upcoming Cup Semi-final to be played in the next couple of weeks.
