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Football the winner as Malahide edge Celtic in thriller”
The heavy rain in the morning was followed by beautiful early afternoon sunshine as Celtic welcomed early season pace setters , Malahide Utd for a Super Saturday fixture. Celtic, seeking to build on a solid performance the previous week, started the game well and it was they who carried the early threat. However Malahide showed their ability when with 10 minutes on the clock they broke swiftly down the right when their pacey winger to square the ball to the unmarked striker who finished in style. A quality break but where was the defensive cover.???? 0-1. Minutes later it was 0-2. Another break this time the Celtic centre back could not keep pace with the Malahide attacker who AGAIN squared the ball and AGAIN it was the unmarked striker who finished well.
Poor defending was costing Celtic and it could have been worse as Malahide somehow missed from two yards out following another break and another case of poor Celtic defending. Celtic were all over the place but credit to them as slowly but surely Celtic started to dominate possession. The next goal would be crucial and Celtic wanted it. Nathan Reilly cut in from the left and took a shot it rebounded out to Dylan Mc Donagh whose shot hit a defenders hand as he lay on the ground. PENALTY but no as the Ref said it was ball to hand. The rebound fell to Mark Hughes whose shot was deflected out for a corner. A minute later Celtic won a free kick just outside the left hand edge of the box. Hughes struck a curler that dipped at the last second only for the Malahide keeper to show his quality by pulling off a magnificent one handed save over the bar. A goal would come and it did………….to Malahide. A swift break , a super shot that brought a good save from Tommy Bowe only for the ever alert striker to follow in and head it over the line. 0-3 at HT and one began to fear for Celtic.
The Celtic Coaches were livid with the Teams defending but equally complimentary about the attacking play. The Coaches kept it simple “ Forget the goals, forget the scoreline, let’s keep it tight at the back in the second half and get the goal your efforts deserve”. The Boys had listened as from the whistle they admirably stuck to their task. Antonio Neto and Hughes dominated the midfield while O’Reilly and Ciaran Collins were probing down the wings. Gaps were appearing and Leigh Reilly was causing all sorts of problems up front. Still this Malahide team is strong and defensively they wanted a clean sheet.
With 15 minutes left Celtic got the goal their efforts deserved when Dylan Mc Donagh exchanged passes with O’ Reilly whose shot from the left finally got past the Malahide stopper. 1-3. More than a goal there was hope. Celtic came again and again. Reilly and Hughes came close before Ryan O’Connell saw his goal bound shot blocked. Celtic continued to probe but on the day the Malahide defence stood tall as they quelled every attack to see the game out. FT: 1-3
First up let’s congratulate a really good Malahide Utd outfit. They are well organised and have no apparent weaknesses. They are the best team Celtic have faced this season and have quality all over the pitch. So it says something about Celtic that they at times outplayed their illustrious opponents and the Boys heads should be held high . Aside from concentration lapses in defence Celtic produced their best football of the season and on another day may have got a share of the spoils.
All in all a wonderful game between two good sides made all the better by the quality refereeing of Mr Brendan Coleman who gave a brilliant performance. Mr Coleman is clearly a fit referee. On his third game in a row he kept up with the play , played advantage wherever possible, had good dialogue with the players and was constantly full of encouragement. Excellent. Even Celtic’s Mark Hughes ,who gave a wonderful display full of energy and enterprise, would agree that the Man of the Match was the referee Mr Coleman. Well done all.
