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Celtic had their third win on the bounce when they played away to Cabinteely Boys in Kilboggit Park. After all the rain overnight, the pitch was surprisingly in great condition, and coupled with the beautiful backdrop of the Dublin Mountains, with the Sugarloaf looming large, an enjoyable spectacle was on the cards. All the players have continued to improve since their first outing in September against Leicester Celtic when they had to fight back from a 4 goal deficit. Match action
Today sickness and injury reduced Celtic’s panel to 10, but it did not blunt the sharpness of the side. Almost from the start, Celtic were on the front foot. Patrick O’Reilly was making menacing runs at the home defence. His early effort missed the target, but on 5 minutes he smashed his shot past the Cabinteely net-minder. Cabinteely did manage to keep the Celtic attack quiet for the next 10 minutes. Brierton Murphy and Dennis Diac swapped passes before Thomas Bolton raced toward the opposition box, only to be taken down at the expense of a free kick in a dangerous position. Thomas hit the free from 20 metres into the top corner, and Celtic had some breathing space. Michael Kelly’s effort on goal was blocked and the score remained 2-0 to Celtic at half time. Michael showed many delicate touches throughout the game, dinking passes through opponents.
The coach’s words at the break urged more of the same as they were all playing well.
Celtic continued to dominate after the interval. Patrick O’Reilly and Gavin Peters combined in an attack but the end product was missing. Shortly afterwards, it was Patrick and Anthony Cooke who were threatening, but again they did not capitalize on the opportunity. The Cabinteely keeper was producing some amazing stops, one such occasion was when Patrick smashed his effort goalward. It looked to be destined for the top right hand corner until the keeper pushed the ball around the post at full stretch. However 3 minutes into the half, Ethan Hoey was again on the mark, having scored last week against St Mochta’s. He seized on an opportunity and shot low into the net. It was not all one way traffic, as Cabinteely were getting chances at the other end, and they were only kept out by some alert goalkeeping by Daniel Cryan who pushed a wicked shot around his near post. Soon after, having been reintroduced to the fray, Thomas made it 4-0. It was then the turn of Patrick whose shot sped under the keeper’s body. Then Thomas completed his hat-trick with a fine finish.
Cabinteely would rightly feel aggrieved with the goal margin at this stage as they were competing well, but all of a sudden they got some reward. They struck three times in quick succession, and within 10 minutes they had hope of a famous comeback. But Patrick was to be the party-pooper and he firmly put the tie beyond doubt with 10 minutes remaining. He hit a fierce shot on target after he broke into the box, giving the keeper no chance. The final act belonged to Thomas when he completed a 4-goal haul, almost equaling his feat on his debut when he scored 5 away to Leicester on the opening day of the season.
While it all seems to have been about the goal scorers, there was still much other work to be done in the execution of this victory. Daniel was again a rock between the sticks, while Dennis and Sam Kelly did a fine job at the back keeping Cabinteely scoreless in that first half, with Brierton making many interventions in the middle frustrating the opponents’ attack. Gavin Peters and Anthony Cooke were involved in much of the midfield build-up play, linking up well in many attacks. Yet again, it was an excellent team performance, with all wanting to put in a shift, typified by the box to box running of every outfield player, even the centre forward from time to time. Well done boys, and next training will be on Wed at 6pm in the lovely NAC all weather pitches. Finally best wishes for speedy recovery to our sick and wounded players whom we hope to see back at training midweek.
