Listowel Celtic  7   Castleknock Celtic  3

Under-14 Girls

SFAI Cup Quarter Final

13 June 2011

"Castleknock's Dream ends in Listowel"  

A very enthusiastic group of girls (and parents) gathered at Laurel Lodge to travel to Listowel to play in the quarter finals of the U14 FAI Cup.

The atmosphere on the bus on the way down was incredible and the decibel level was increased further when we received the news that our arch rivals Shelbourne were knocked out of the competition earlier in the week, leaving the Castleknock Celtic girls as the last Dublin Team standing in the competition.

After the long journey we arrived in the beautiful surroundings of Listowel with an hour to spare, so the girls could get properly prepared for the match ahead.

After a warm-up we took the pitch for the 5 o clock kick off. Within 15 minutes of the match the Castleknock Girls had been totally overrun and out played by a powerful and pacey Listowel team, the like we had not encountered before, and found themselves trailing by 5 goals to nil.

But all credit to these girls, despite the hammering they had taken in the first 15 minutes, the heads did not go down and they eventually played them selves back into the match. Just before the half time whistle the Castleknock girls pulled a goal back through Aoibheann Lynch. Half time came on a very warm day with the score at 5-1 to Listowel.

The Castleknock girls came out in the second half where they left off in the first. The defence of Lucy Hanlon, Kellie Boyle, Fiona Fitzgerald and Jennifer Treadwell were looking more solid and with Rebecca Kearney moving into the midfield this allowed Emma Boyle the freedom to get more involved in the midfield battle. Up front we had Aoibheann Lynch and Lyndsey Kearney with constant movement and pace and once again these girls believed that they could still get something from this match. Naoisha McAloon was again one of our star performers and the score would surely have been surely double the final tally has she not been in goal as she thwarted the Listowel attack time and time again. A couple of injuries to a couple of Castleknock key players had a huge effect on the game and the girls found themselves trailing by 7 goals to one with 10 minutes remaining.

It was a hard scoreline to take as Castleknock applied a lot of pressure on the Listowel defence. Lynsdey Kearney headed over with a diving header after some great work by Aoibheann Lynch out on the left wing. Emma Boyle went on a mazy run beating five defenders before cracking a shot against the cross bar. There were a number of long range efforts from Emma Boyle free kicks that went narrowly wide with the Listowel keeper stranded.

These girls do not know when they are beat and incredibly came back one once again to finish the stronger of the two teams. Aoibheann Lynch grabbed her hat trick with two well taken goals in the last ten minutes, the final goal being the pick of the bunch when she coolly lobbed the keeper from the end of the penalty area. The final whistle went with the final score 7-3 to Listowel.

There was no doubt that the better team won on the day but to put everything into perspective it is worth considering the following points.

1. This Listowel Celtic team have been playing 11-a-side together for the last 3 years. This was the Castleknock Girls first year at 11-a-side.
2. This Listowel team only conceded 1 goal in their league campaign and scored over 50 goals. We put 3 past them and could have had a couple more with a little bit of luck.
3. This Listowel have been to the final of the community games twice in the last three years.
4. One of our most experienced players, Emma Boyle, came into the game carrying an injury. It was a miracle that she finished the game at all and was limping badly at the end of the match. Also, one of strongest defenders, Rebecca Kearney, came into the match with a head cold and we needed her to be on top of her game against a team this strong.

Afterwards the visiting Castleknock Celtic team were treated to a spread of treats laid on by their Kingdom hosts.