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Titanic battle in Porterstown saw Celtic just edge this encounter. It looked bleak at the start of the morning as the rain chucked down, but by kick-off time, the Sun was making a welcome appearance. Ethan Hoey was ruled out after hurting his head while out playing the night before. We wish him a speedy recovery. There were no excuses this week for being slow out of the blocks as there was plenty of time for the lads to have their team photo taken for the 2017 Calendar, and to do their warm-ups in preparation for what was to be a magnificent contest.
After last week when they went 0-4 down in 12 minutes, there was a sense of deja vu as they conceded a goal within a minute. However, Edward Nuzum and Matei Domsa in the heart of the defence and Daniel Cryan in goal were not unsettled by the setback, and they kept St Maelruans blank for the remainder of the half. Meantime, Mirav Vaitha, Michael Kelly and Brierton Murphy were containing the visitors' midfielders limiting their attacks. Sean Ogbomo came on to strengthen the defence, but he has an adventurous spirit and he ventured forward at every opportunity as Matei had been doing, which can be very risky when the opponents have speedy forwards which Maelruans possessed. Sam Kelly was battling up front but Celtic possession was limited in the early part of the game. Thomas Bolton again entered the fray late in the first half, as his midweek training had been prevented due to a knee injury, but he could not keep himself away from this game. He showed no signs of the injury and he immediately began to combine with his team mates, including debutant Patrick McKiernan and Gavin Peters who was again industrious in the middle of the park. Niall Maloney was another debutant and he was also combining well in his first game in the hoops of Celtic. Anthony Cooke was working well on the right side of midfield. It was again Thomas who struck Celtic's first. He raced in on the left and unleashed a shot into the net. 1-1 and the Celtic tails were up.
The half time whistle sounded and it was a simple team talk with the coach urging more of the same and a high work rate which would be the foundation for victory.
With Patrick and Thomas looking dangerous, supported by their midfield colleagues, the game started to swing to Celtic. 5 minutes into the second half, Thomas hit a blinding shot from 20 metres out that screamed into the top corner of the net. Celtic were ahead for the first time. Soon after, it was Patrick who was on the mark when he made it 3-1 and it looked like Celtic were home and hosed. But they were against plucky opponents, and the visitors battled back to parity with 10 minutes remaining, as the Celtic keeper Daniel had no chance of stopping the goals. It looked a fair scoreline at 3-3, as both sides had gone very close, including St Maelruans who had hit the woodwork 3 times in quick succession, and other shots went narrowly wide. At the other end Thomas B had thumped a shot against the crossbar. Yes, it was a thoroughly entertaining game, and it was great to see the enthusiasm of all the squad, both when they were on the field and off taking a rest from the fray. When it looked like the points would be shared, an attack on the left saw Thomas have his shot excellently saved by the Maelruans keeper, but full credit to Sam Kelly who retrieved the ball as it went across the box, and his cross to the far post was met by Patrick who deftly put the ball into the empty net. Wild celebrations followed, and the points were in the bag. Congratulations to both teams who had served up a feast of football. There was much sympathy for the Maelruans lads who had come away from the game with no points but huge credit for a great team performance. Back to training on Monday at 6.30pm in Porterstown Park.
