Castleknock Celtic 2   Sporting Athletic 1

AUL Div3 Sun

28 Sept 08

In Porterstown the AUL Division 3 Sunday side continued their strong start to the season with their 3rd win in 3 games. However, they were put to a sterner test than in the early games which saw the Castleknock Celtic side score 15 goals in 2 outings. Sporting Athletic started brightly and were the better side for the first 10 minutes. Gradually Castleknock took control only to concede a strange goal where the referee blew his whistle while the ball was in flight for what looked like a free out to Celtic. The Celtic keeper, Thomas McElroy half stopped and the ball went past him into the net, To Celtics suprise the referee awarded the goal. Celtic continued to exert pressure which was eventually rewarded when Ray Kelly was brought down for a penalty. Birthday boy Eoin O'Shea stepped up only to blast the balll wide. Celtic still had the better of things and were rewarded when Ray Kelly scored his 6th goal of the season to level matters.  

The second half started in similar vein to the first with Celtic taking time to settle. Eventually they did and the Sporting Athletic keeper was by far the busiest of the netminders. However, Celtic could not break them down and Sporting were always a threat. Eventually a super run by Aaron McAdam saw him go past 3 players before being brought down for Celtics 2nd penalty. This time Chris Hoey stepped up and struck a lovely shot low into the bottom left. Celtic continued to play the better football but did not register another score. This almost came back to haunt them when Sporting took almost complete control in the final ten minutes and were awarded about 6 corners. Celtic hung on to their lead and came out 2-1 winners. A good result for the team that as they did not play to their capabilities on the day.