Castleknock Celtic 3 Swords Celtic 1

Castleknock Celtic 12E’s played host to Swords Celtic whom they defeated away last week and beat in an eleven-goal thriller.

Both teams had things to prove today and the first minutes of this game showed that both teams had learnt from the previous week. Castleknock’s defence was set up to counter the Swords long ball game that had been so effective last week and all 4 Castleknock front-runners were instantly man marked by Swords from the kick off.

Swords went ahead on 8 minutes with a good passing movement from midfield. The Castleknock defence looked like they had it covered but the Swords player was offered a metre of space at the edge of the box and he struck a high dipping shot which went over Jack Jennings finger tips into the top right hand corner of the net. First blood went to Swords. Castleknock were not put off by this set back. They kept playing and going forward. Probing runs down the wings by Tom Byrne and Darragh McCaffrey led to efforts by Aaron Connolly and Niall O’Callaghan going narrowly wide. With their long ball game countered by the Castleknock defence most of the attacking was by Castleknock. However breaking down the Swords defence was proving difficult.

The second half opened with Castleknock finally getting the equaliser. Niall O’Callaghan’s shot, which was pushed as far away from the keeper as possible, went in off the left upright. Swords however came right back and 3 minutes later had a goal disallowed for a clear offside. The game ebbed and flowed from end to end and the break through came on 52 minutes when Orla Higgins beat her man on the right, cut inside and fired off an unstoppable volley into the top of the net to put Castleknock ahead. From the tip off Castleknock pressed forward again and on 54 minutes Niall O’ Callaghan scored his second to put the game beyond doubt.

The game finished 3 – 1 to Castleknock which flattered a little as this Swords team made the 12E’s dig very deep to get their win. With three games to go and a fair wind the 12E’s are now in with a shot of winning the league.

Squad. Jack Jennings, Aaron Connolly, Paul Burke, Adam McCabe, Stephen Byrne, Thomas Byrne, Jack Ryan, Ntinga Mtiko, Declan King, Ciarán Byrne, Darragh Caffrey, Amir Kasaspovic, Adam Prior, Orlaith Higgins, Paul Garvey, Graham Chan, Niall O'Callaghan