NDSL 13D

30 Nov. 2008 

Castleknock Celtic 2    Raheny Utd  6   

The 13D’s were well beaten in their cup-tie by 13C league leaders Raheny Utd. The gap of 6 weeks since their last competitive outing and only 5^th match this season left the 13D’s very rusty lacking that passion to win every ball and so were no match for the on form Raheny Utd.  Raheny went in front on 5 minutes with Celtic levelling from a free by Ntinga Mtiko on 24 minutes. Raheny went back in front from a counter attack following a Celtic corner and should have gone further ahead two minutes later except Celtic man of the match Amir Kasasopic in goal saved a penalty. 

However in a 5-minute onslaught at the start of the second half saw Raheny score two more goals. Celtic nearly got one back with Craig Smyth’s effort off the post and wide on 38 minutes.  But it was Amir in goal who had the busiest day denying Raheny with many good saves.  Celtic scored a second when Paul Burke scored from the spot when the Raheny keeper pushed a Celtic player following a corner. Aaron Connolly brought a great save from the Raheny keeper on 56 minutes but Raheny finished the game off emphatically with two goals in the last 5 minutes.  

Celtic was the poorer of the two teams on the day. The lessons worth learning from this Raheny team were their hunger for every ball and willingness to chase and work together in both defence and attack.   

Squad.  Amir Kasapovic, Ntinga Mtiko, Graham Chan, Aaron Connolly, Declan King, Thomas Byrne, Jackie Chan, Ciarán Byrne, Craig Smyth, Adam McCabe, Iain Coughlan, Paul Burke, Adam Prior, Stephen Byrne, Jack Ryan.