25/11/07

NDSL 13A

Castleknock Celtic  0  Portmarnock  2

Castleknock tamely went down 2-0 to league leaders Portmarnock.  A tough physical Portmarnock were always on top but still only managed to score their first goal 10mins from the end.  Their second came in the last 3 minutes as Castleknock pressed for an equaliser and they broke away to score.

The game was tough from the start. Missing Wale through illness, and playing John Roe and Kevin Bassett even though they had the flu, things got worse from the 5th minute on.  First Rory Hegarty was stretchered off after a bad tackle, within two minutes Michael Kiely was injured and came off.  Next Conor Murphy came off injured, quickly followed by Michael Romanti.  An injury in the first minute of the second half to Sean Ryan, led to the Castleknock manager  having to put back on the least  injured players.  After another 10 minutes centre forward Roe came off unable to breath.  Castleknock felt they should have more protection from the ref, but overall Portmarnock were just physically too strong.

Any chance of Castleknock sneaking a draw went  when Ciaran O Sullivan was pulled down in the box, only for the Ref to give a free kick from the edge of the box rather than a penalty.  An amazing situation as both sets of players had moved outside the box in anticipation of the penalty being taken. Manager Roe refused to blame the ref. and insisted his team will learn. " we have to learn how to dig in and fight for results. Pretty passing football does not always work when playing physically aggressive teams."