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After all the rain of the past 24 hours, it was surprising that this game went ahead. However, no game was played on the Delaford Park pitch on Saturday so the all-clear was given by the Knocklyon management for the contest, with the referee kitted out in fluorescent yellow – it was bit hard on the eyes, but it guaranteed he wouldn’t be hit by any low-flying aircraft from Weston aerodrome. [more photo action to come]
Castleknock were in their canary yellow away strip, and the game got off to a flying start. As the reporter scrambled around for his camera, James Bannerman was busy setting up Costel Burlacu for the goal that would ultimately decide the outcome of the game. Costel shot low into the far corner of the net to put the visitors ahead. Castleknock continued to press forward and James, Rei and Ren Mulligan went close to scoring. Ruben Ahern was in outstanding form in the middle of the park, tackling and putting the ball through to the Celtic front men. He went within a whisker of scoring when his shot from 10 yards whizzed by the left hand goal post. Ethan Hoey joined the fray midway through the half, and he was in exceptional form. After nearly scoring for his U-10 team the previous day with a shot from the halfway line, he was back helping his team mates this morning with his incisive runs and always looking a threat. One of his efforts on goal went agonizingly close to finding the target. At the back, Conor Lawless and Ahmad Niazi were in imperious form, and never content to miss a tackle, they battled throughout. While it was mostly Celtic who looked like scoring in that first half. Knocklyon made what appeared to be goal scoring opportunities. They broke through the Celtic defence and the equalizer looked certain. Like on so many previous occasions, Theo Hennessy made a succession of superb saves, one of which was World class, diving at full stretch to prevent a goal. His performance was summed up by a stranger after the game when he said “that is one great keeper you have”. The half time break came and Celtic had their noses in front. 1-0
The second half was another enthralling affair. Knocklyon were looking very dangerous, and they went oh so close to equalizing. One of their efforts by Michael thundered off the goal post and out over the line. It would have been clearly a wonderful goal had it hit the back of the net, but then again, if it was on target, would Theo have made another wonder save?
Celtic were having chances too. James Bannerman was through on goal on a number of occasions only to be denied a goal by fine goal keeping by the Knocklyon no.1. James was showing lots of the tricks he has in his locker, and was unlucky not to be rewarded with a goal. Costel and Ethan continued to threaten and create. Ren and Rei combined to make opportunities and on another day would have scored but they did not get the rub of the green. Ruben was competing in the middle which took some of the pressure off his defence. Conor and Ahmad had to be alert to keep Knocklyon at bay, and again when called upon, Theo was totally dependable. After Celtic scored with 2 minutes on the clock, it was the longest 48 minutes in history, but the referee finally blew for the end of the game and there were sighs of relief from the visiting supporters and team. One could only feel sympathy for the home team who were extremely sporting throughout, and they very much deserved a share of the points for their contribution to the game which was immense. But as the man said, “football is a funny old game” and you don’t always get what you deserve. Well done to all for a brilliant morning’s entertainment, and thank you to Keith and Ciara for bringing our 2 guest players from the U-9 and U-10 teams to the game when we needed them with our U-11s numbers down due to holidays. Celtic are in pole position at the top of the table, taking these 3 points against one of their title-chasing rivals, while Clontarf who started the day on top, lost 3-1 v Dundrum Athletic, but it certainly was a good day for Celtic.
