The
13D’s played their first competitive game sine the end of Nov. Ironically it
was another cup game against the same team Raheny Utd who are currently top of
the 13C league.
The
13D’s were depleted due to injuries and illness so fielded a squad of 12 but
were happy to welcome back Darragh McCaffrey who was injured early on in the
season was playing his first match since September. With Castleknock playing in a formation that
they were unfamiliar with Raheny were two up after 12 minutes exploiting the
gaps in the Castleknock defence. They were four up after 20 minutes with their
fourth goal being goal of the day. It was a beautiful through ball, which
picked out their centre forward who stepped around the Castleknock defender and
stuck the ball into the far right corner beyond the out stretched arms of
Michael Fahy in goal.
Castleknock
stated the second half determined to take the game back and prove to be no
pushovers. They scored after two minutes from the restart when the Raheny
keeper did well to palm out a free kick from Ntinga Mtiko only to have it land
at the feet of Craig Smyth who shot into the back of the net. Challenging more and fighting for all balls
Castleknock were making life difficult for Raheny who despite their lead were
not taking things easy. Raheny eventually broke through on 42 minutes to score
their fifth. There then followed a period of intense Castleknock pressure,
which had Craig Smyth go close twice more and finished with Aaron Connolly
scoring from the 5-metre line.
Unfortunately as legs wearied Raheny broke through from a corner with
two minutes to go to score their sixth goal.
A hard fought encounter with the second half being instructive of what this Castleknock team can do when they are sharper from more real match practice.
Squad. Michael
Fahy, Amir Kasapovic, Ntinga
Mtiko, Aaron Connolly, Thomas Byrne, Jackie Chan, Ciarán Byrne, Craig Smyth,
Iain Coughlan, Adam Prior, Jack Ryan, Darragh McCaffrey.