CCFC U15A Vs Collinstown
First game of the season saw Castleknock play their first home game together since their formation during preseason. With a rocky start resulting in no wins in 4 friendlies Celtic improved with each game and gelled as a team really well. Looking for their first win together as a team the hunger throughout the team was there from the warm up with each of the players fully focused and ready to go. With Castleknock carrying a couple of injuries to key players the starting line-up saw some players in different positions. Each player started strong controlling the game from all angles. It didn’t take long for Celtic to break the deadlock when Oleg ran through the back line and shot from the left side of the 6 yard box and drilled it in to the bottom right corner. Some very strong defensive play from the back 4 of Harry, Louis, Mustafa and Callum Ward meant that Celtic won back possession quickly from the tip off. Some strong passing football between the midfield of Shammah, Fred, Hakim, Harry O’Reilly and Callum Daly saw chance after chance hit at the Collinstown defence who couldn’t keep up with their attacking force. Oleg leading the line up front on his own meant that he had loads of work to do and again he didn’t disappoint in front of goal extending Celtic’s lead to 2-0. Celtic dropped the high standard that they had kept for the last 10 minutes and gifted Collinstown with their first goal of the game that fell to their right mid who took his chance well.
The half time talk was all about the team as a whole working together and combining together getting back the standard that they had at the start.
The second half Mohamed came on to defensive mid and Shammah dropped back to centre back to control the back line. Castleknock had a number of chances and Harry O’Reilly and Hakim were unfortunate to not get a goal early on. Callum Daly had a great game on the right wing swinging in ball after ball and taking a few for himself. After 10 minutes of constant pressure even with Harry Lewis playing right back went up for a chance at goal just going over the crossbar for what could have been a serious contender for goal of the month. It took Oleg to finish to complete his hat-trick for the game to give Celtic the two goal cushion again. The tempers were starting to fray and the defence couldn’t handle the pressure from Castleknock and Hakim saw himself in trouble for reacting to a few poor challenges in a row. Hakim fired up from this made an amazing run beating most of the back line to fire in to the back of the net. Hakim was then replaced by Callum Ward who came back on in a very unfamiliar left mid role. Castleknock repeated the mistake of the first half and went to sleep for the last 10 minutes conceding 2 goals from set pieces which came up during preseason as a problem for the lads. But they held on tight and saw the game through with some strong support play from Alex who came on off the bench to left back and some vital saves from Ethan in goal.
Final Score: Castleknock 4 Collinstown 3. First three points and win for the lads
