23/9/07

NDSL 13Premier

Castleknock Celtic  1    Clontarf FC  1

Celtic took on their old tile rivals at a windy Porterstown and they swpt into Clontarf like a gale with Arthur Stark bringing a great save from the 'tarf keper. Celtic should have scored when from a corner, striker Brian Slevin headed against the post.

Celtic continued to pour forward in wave after wave, driven forward by Cian Conway and Mohamed Mahady in midfield.  Conway opened Clontarf up again for Stark to shave the post with a bullet shot.

All hell broke loose 5 mins later, when Slevin dived to head the ball against the post, only to see it cross the line, and be cleared  from 2 yards behind the goal line. Unfortunately, the ref on the half way line waved play on, ref blaming the goal mouth markings for his lack of sight!

Not deterred Celtic composed themselves, and played stunningly for the next 15 mins, with what was a hugely weakened side, missing still capt Sean Hanney through a broken foot, Conor Byrne to a broken hand, wing wizard Dermot Murray to torn hamstring, and Garreth Elliot to a foot injury, but you wouldn't have noticed.

Sinead O'Farrelly was superb covering every blade of grass on the pitch.  News broke during the morning that she has been selected for Noel King's ladies Irish squd, and as she slipped Stark in, he crossed to see Eoin O'Brien dive to head the opener.  1-0.

The second half was a closely contested affair with honours even.  Slevin, Stark and Sinead O'Farrelly went close for Celtic, while keeper Kevin "Joey" Murphy, made two great saves for the Celts, before Clontarf got the deserved equaliser from a fine individual goal from their number nine. the draw a fair result. 1-1