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After last week's performance on their Division debut, Celtic travelled to Terenure on a beautiful sunny day with confidence high as they prepared to face off against Terenure Rangers. Celtic started like they finished last week – ON FIRE. With 15 minutes on the clock, ace marksman, Esse Okirikpo, had got himself a hat-trick. Rangers had no answer to Esse or his partner in crime Caitlin La Bont who was finding the striker with every pass. 3-0 and cruising or so we thought. Terenure Rangers were about to show their teeth.
Rangers broke and the ball was touched home. 1-3. Within a minute it was 2-3 with a quality strike. Indeed were it not for a great save from Max Ostapchuk it would have been 3-3. The next goal would be crucial and Celtic were relieved when it went their way. The ball was played through by Andre Ungareanu to Caitlin who broke free to make it 4-2 at half time.
Having lost midfield general, James Browne, to injury, Celtic reshuffled with Luke Hughes switching from right full to mid allowing Denys Yaskersky to switch flanks. Within minutes it was 5-2 as from an acute angle Conor Simmonds, following a great move involving Ben Forde and Andre, drove the ball with power into the net. Minutes later Abdullah avoided offside (for once!!!) to finish in style. 6-2. Credit to Rangers as they fought back with a fine strike to make it 6-3 before the re-introduced Esse broke free to make it 7-3.
“Hot Shot” Esse then got his fifth from a Luke cross before Luke himself struck home with a sweet strike from 20 yards following a good exchange of passes from Ryan “Maccer” Mc Gregor and Abdullah. FT: 9-3
The score line does not reflect the hard work and quality from Terenure. Today they came up against a Celtic side on their game and a striker, Esse, who was unplayable. Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes not. Today every time Esse shot he scored. At the Euro’s we had “Will Gregg’s on Fire”, well today we could have had “Esse’s on fire. Your defence is terrified”.
When these two teams meet again, it will be a much closer affair but today was Celtic’s day. As for Man of the Match, in a performance like this there were plenty of contenders. Normally after a superb 5 goal haul Esse would be the MAN BUT not today. Today it was Caitlin. He was everywhere – he scored, he had assists and on two occasions he took the ball out of the sky with the deftest of touches. SUPERB.
All in all a great performance and a deserved win. Enjoy the feeling lads but remember it’s back to the training ground on Monday. See you then.
