Clontarf bring our winning streak to an end

This was a tightly fought match from the start and both sides were attacking strongly. Niamh had an excellent chance to open the scoring, but the Clontarf keeper managed to keep the ball out of the net. Luckily Nado was on hand to poke home the rebound and give us the lead.

Clontarf tried hard to level the scores before half time, but our defence was rock solid. John was forced to make several dramatic saves which maintained our lead and earned him the title of man-of-the-match.

We went into the second half with our slender 1-0 lead, but Clontarf managed to pull back onto level terms. Both teams had several scoring chances during the rest of the match, but the match ended up 1-1 which was probably the fairest result as both teams played very well.

This was the first break in our 100% winning record for the season, but we are still undefeated so we can be very proud of our results so far. Keep up the good work!

Another home match

This weekend we will have our third home match in a row when we play host to Clontarf. Kick-off is at 11:15 on Saturday (29th of September) so everyone should meet up in Porterstown by 11am.

Our winning streak continues

At the start of the match it looked like it would be a hard fought match. Both sides had plenty of chances and John Lennon-Maher had to pull off several dramatic saves. However, it was Castleknock which went into an early lead when a Demi lobbed a speculative shot over the head of the Ratoath keeper. The keeper managed to scramble back and get a hand to it, but he could not keep it out of the goal.

Shortly afterwards our man-of-the-match David scored another goal to stretch our lead to 2-0. Things were looking good when we were awarded a penalty for hand-ball, but Dylan's powerful shot was narrowly wide. Ratoath managed to get a goal before half-time so that we had a narrow 2-1 lead at the break.

The second half was barely started when Demi had a brilliant run down the wing followed by an excellent shot to give us a comfortable 3-1 lead. Shortly afterwards
Zhudi managed to volley home a cross to stretch our lead to 4-1.

However, Ratoath had no intention of giving up and pulled the score back to 4-2 with a well deserved goal. They continued to put lots of pressure on and Frank, Andy, Cathal and Nado had plenty of work to do keeping them from getting further scores.

Castlkock had other plans however and Demi scored two more excellent goals to leave us with a comfirtable 6-2 margin at the end.

Training moving to an earlier time

Due to the fact that the nights are getting darker we will need to move our training time in future to 6:30pm rather than 7pm.

In a few more weeks when the nights get even darker, we will be forced to move to the All weather pitch so that we can use the floodlights. The time which has been allocated to us is 6pm on Monday. I know this time is not great for many people (including the coaches), but this was the only slot we could get.

Another home match

Our next match will be a home match against Ratoath. Kick-off is at 12:45 on Saturday 22nd of September. We should all meet up in Porterstown before 12:30.

Now that we are top of the league all the other teams will be making a special effort to beat us.

Castleknock go clear at the top of the table after tight match against Maynooth

We had a bigger than normal turnout of supporters for our match today. This was partly due to the excitement of a top of the table clash, but also due to the lovely weather. The sun was shining brightly and the weather was warmer than the "summer" as the match kicked-off.

It was clear from the start that this was going to be a close game as both teams were playing very well and were determined to get top spot in the league. Both sides had plenty of shots on goal in the first half, but it was Maynooth who opened the scoring. Shortly afterwards Zhudi brought us back on level terms with a powerful shot into the corner of the net. Unfortunately Maynooth replied by scoring another goal almost straight away. The score remained at 2-1 for Maynooth until the half-time break.

Niamh was forced to come off early with a sore ankle, but luckily it was not a serious injury.

As the second half got started both teams were making every effort to score. The Castleknock defence was rock solid with Frank Collins playing a particularly good game clearing any loose balls that came in. The few shots which Maynooth managed to get past him were kept out by our goalie John who had another great game.

It was beginning to look like another bad-luck day for Castleknock when suddenly our luck changed when Dylan took a long shot that bounced over goalies head to leave the teams level 2-2.

From this point onwards our luck definitely changed. Demi dribbled most of the length of the pitch before slipping the ball past the goalie to make the score 3-2. Almost straight afterwards he did a similar move to give us a 4-2 lead.

All credit is due to Maynooth who battled strongly until the final whistle. However they were unable to get any more scores so the game ended 4-2 and Castleknock were the clear early leaders in the league table.

With so many good performances it was tough to select a man-of-the-match but after much dicsussion we decided to give it to Dylan our captain for today.

Click here for some pictures.

Next match is a home game against Maynooth

Our next match will be a home game against Maynooth. Kick-off is at 12:30 on Saturday next 15/Sept so we should all be in Porterstown before 12:15am.

I see that Maynooth also had a big win in their opening game last weekend, so this is a top of the table clash. I am sure we will be able to continue our good form.

A dramatic opening for the new season with a 6-2 victory over Malahide

The sun was shining brightly as we arrived in Malahide Castle. This was surely a good omen because the match was only barely underway when our newest team member Demi Dare scored an opening goal when his shot was deflected off a Malahide player into the corner of the goal.We kept the pressure on after this and soon afterwards Zhudi managed to connect with a loose ball in the box and score another goal to give Castleknock a strong lead.

Malahide battled strongly to try and get back into the game but the Castleknock was very strong especially Frank Collins who was on hand to clear up any loose balls and our new goalie John Lennon-Maher who played a very solid game. Nevertheless Malahide managed to get one back before half time. So the score was 2-1 to Castleknock at the break.

Castleknock came out strongly in the second half and Demi scored his second goal with a rocket of a shot which gave the Malahide goalie no chance. Zhudi did not want to be left out of the action so he scored a second goal soon afterwards.

Malahide managed to get another goal which seemed to bring them back into the game. But Castleknock had a firm control of the match and our star newcomer Demi managed to get another goal to seal his hat-trick and put the result beyond doubt. Shortly afterwards Dylan managed to sneak in a cheeky chip which went over the Malahide keeper's head and left the score at 6-2.

With so many strong performances it was hard to pick a man-of-the-match, but I think that Demi Dare has to be the choice in recognition of his hat-trick in his debut match.

Our two new players are pictured below. Click here to see a full set of pictures from the match.

Registration forms

Rosemary Lennon-Maher (John's mom) has agreed to collect the registration forms. Please give your completed forms to Rosemary as soon as possible. If you mislaid the form you can download another one here. If there is more than one player from a single family, the registration fee should be sent to the manager of the oldest player's team but the registration form itself should be returned to Rosemary in all cases.

Our fixtures will be announced in the Evening Herald each Monday, so you should keep an eye out for that. Also don't forget to read and abide by our code of ethics.

An away matchagainst Malahide

Our first match of the new season will be an away home match against Malahide. Kick off will be at 12noon on Saturday next 8th of September.

We should meet up at our usual location beside the all weather pitches at 11am so that we have time to travel to Malahide before the match.

Training restarts

Training for the new season will start on Wednesday 5th of September. Our training sessions will be held at 7pm on Laurel Lodge Green for the first few weeks. However, once the evenings start to get darker we will probably move to an indoor venue and probably a different day/time.

A new blog for the new football season

Since we are now starting a new soccer season, we are starting off on a new blog site. This site will relate to the Castleknock Celtic 10C team for the 2007/2008 season and will be a direct follow on from the under 9 team last season whose exploits were described on over on http://cc9d.blogspot.com

Brian and Gavin would like to welcome you back to the soccer season. We are now moved up to the under 10 division where the teams are 9 a-side and the matches last 30 minutes per half. We will have to be better to survive in this tougher division, but I am sure we will have even greater success (and have even more fun) than last year.