NDSL 12D League

18 Nov 07

Castleknock Celtic  1    Malahide Utd  2

Following last week’s narrow defeat by top of the table Northway Rangers the 12E’s were looking to bounce back to their winning ways with their game against Malahide. 

The game started with Malahide adopting a very defensive set-up with two tall central defenders who had not played when the 12E’s beat Malahide away some weeks earlier.  These two “new” defenders gave much greater strength and solidity to their defence.  The 12E’s started aggressively moving forward but were pushed back by the Malahide defence. Malahide only ventured forward occasionally.  After 10 minutes Adam McCabe took a heavy knock, which finished him for the game. However on 16 minutes Malahide went ahead with a well-taken corner allowed them a shot to the top left hand corner of the Castleknock net. The 12E’s did not lose heart and some 4 minutes later Aaron Connolly drew the teams level.   Half-time saw the teams level but with the 12E’s attacking and threatening the Malahide goal.

The second half continued in the same fashion. However with the score even Malahide gained in confidence becoming that little quicker to the loose ball.  The 12E’s kept plugging away and kept the Malahide keeper on his toes. It all went wrong on 48 minutes when a second corner poorly defended by the 12E’s gifted Malahide their second goal.  The 12E’s attacked continuously after that but to no avail. With the 12E’s going for the equaliser Malahide nearly scored a third on a breakaway but Jack Jennings sped off his line and the Malahide shot went narrowly wide. 

This was a hard lesson for the 12E’s. Lucky breaks can go the other way and despite a high work rate if you don’t get the ball in the net you will suffer the consequences.    

Squad.  Jack Jennings, Aaron Connolly, Paul Burke, Adam McCabe, Stephen Byrne, Hugh Molloy, Thomas Byrne, Jack Ryan, Ntinga Mtiko, Declan King, Ciarán Byrne, Adam Prior, Darragh McCaffrey, Amir Kasaspovic, Paul Garvey, Graham Chan.