Castleknock Celtic  4  Skerries Town  1

"Celtic March On"

NDSL 14Premier

O'Neill Cup 3rd Round

15th March 2009

Celtic started this Cup game after a lot of soul-searching since their  league upset the previous week, but they came out with a resolve for this game that put the turbulence behind them.  It was a very competitive game of nip and tuck.  Brian Slevin the the post and brought off a couple of super saves from the Seasiders' keeper.   John Roe went close with a fine header from a Moh Mahady corner.

At the other end, Paddy Dunne was having the game of his life making 3 great saves,  which included one reminiscent of Gordon Banks from Pele in Mexico in 1970.

Then Skerries broke down the left, but was  taken down in the box for a penalty. The Skerries captain McCarth smashed a thunderbold to the left, but amazingly young Dunne glided through the air to pull off the save of the season, to keep the sides level. 

The game continued to ebb and flow, with man of  the match Luke Gealon playing some wonderful football in the middle of the park.  He slotted balls  through to Slevin,  Roe and Stark, time after time. The reward came eventually when Gealon beat 3 players, put Slevin through to round the keeper for the opening score - goal  41 for the striker. 1-0 half-time.

The second half started with Luke Gealon continuing with his orchestrating the midfield.  Another corner from Moh Mahady was cleared to the edge of the box, from where Gealon acrobatically bicycle-kicked the ball, which looked goal-bound until the Skerries keeper managed to tip it onto the bar. 

This was followed by a 2 minute period of pandemonium. Roe slotted Stark through one-on-one with the keeper, who making no attempt to play the ball, took the striker down. Penalty to Celtic.

All Hell breaks loose as 2 Skerries players are shown red cards, while further cautions were issued by the ref. Celtic's Moh Mahady remained calm as he waited to take the penalty. After 5 mins, he coolly struck the spot kick to the net. 2-0 Celtic and game virtually over.

Stark and Slevin wrapped up the scoring with their respective strikes, before Skerries were scored a consolation goal.  The draw is eagerly awaited for the quarter finals.  4-1