Away match against Dunshaughlin

Next Saturday (5th of April) we will have an away match against Dunshaughlin. Kick-off is at 11:30am, but since it is a fairly long trip, we should meet up at 10:30 beside the all weather pitch.

Knocked out of the cup by Maynooth on a miserable day

Although the weather was reasonably good on the morning of our match against Maynooth, the rain began to come down quite heavily as the time of the kick-off approached. The pitch was mucky before the match even started, but as the match progressed it got even muckier and it was clearly a day more suited to ducks than soccer players.

The match had hardly started when there was some messy play in the Castleknock goalmouth and Cathal accidentally handled the ball. Most referees would have given the player some leeway, but this referee immediately awarded a penalty to Maynooth. Maynooth scored the penalty and followed up with two more gaols so that they were 3-0 up at half time.

Castleknock were not willing to concede defeat and as the second half started they threw everything into attack to try and get back into the game. Zhudi, John and Niamh had plenty of chances to put the ball in the net, but it seemed that lady luck was not smiling on us today. Frank earned the man-of-the-match. title for his strong performance in defense combined with many attacking runs down the wing.

It seemed like it was only a matter of time until Castleknock got onto the score sheet,  but it was Maynooth  who slipped in another score against the run of play to go 4-0 up.

Most teams would have given up at this stage, but as the saying goes "when the going gets tough - the tough get going". Castleknock continued to attack strongly and we finally got our reward when  Omar sored our first goal with an excellent long range shot. The game came back to life when Demi followed up with another goal shortly afterwards.

However our rally came too late and the score was 4-2 to Maynooth when the final whistle blew. On the day I think it is fair to say that the better team won.

Sadly this is the end of our cup campaign. We will now have two weeks off due to St Patrick's day and the Easter Holidays. I am sure you will come back well rested  from the break to finish off the league campaign.

Cup match against Maynooth rescheduled for next Saturday

Our cup match against Maynooth which was called off last Saturday due to the rain, will now be held next Saturday 15th of March. Kick-off will be at 12:30pm, so we should all meet up in Porterstown by 12:15 at the latest.

Lets hope we can get our St Patrick's weekend celebrations off on a good note!

A 21st Birthday Party for Castleknock Celtic

The club are organizing a 21st birthday for the club. It will be held at 8pm on Saturday 19th of April in Castleknock Hotel. Tickets are 40 euro and include a buffet, Disco and late bar.
All parents are invited to come along and enjoy a great night out. For tickets contact Ainle Zambra at 087-9372611

A cup match against Maynooth

Our next match will be a home cup match against Maynooth. Kick-off is at 11:30am on Saturday 8th of March so we should all meet up at Porterstown by 11:15.

A tough battle ends in defeat to Grange Woodbine

We should have known that this was not going to be our lucky day when our captain Cathal lost the toss and we ended up playing into a very strong wind in first half.

The match was very open because the pitch was very wide and the gusting wind made the bounce of the ball very unpredictable. It was Grange Woodbine who opened the scoring with an early goal which left our goalkeeper for the day Omar with no chance.

Our luck began to get worse when John, who was having a great game in the forwards had to go off injured with a bad cut on his knee. He only spent a short time on the pitch, but it was enough to earn him our man-of-the-match title for the day.

After John went off, Castleknock did their best to get back into the game. One of their many shots was saved by Grange Woodbine and the ball bounced at Robert's feet. Robert's shot went over the line before the Grange Woodbine tried to scoop it out. Although the goal was already scored Zhudi was on hand to put it into the back of the net, just in case the referee didn't see the goal. This made the teams level 1-1 at half time.

We thought we would be in a strong position for the second half because we were now playing with the wind. However, Grange Woodbine had other ideas and one of their shots took a funny bounce due to the gusting wind and the ball curved around Omar to give them the lead 2-1. Shortly afterwards Omar hurt his ankle and had to go off injured, so it was just as well we had a full complement of subs ready.

Despite our best efforts we were not able to score an equalizer before the referee blew the final whistle after what seemed like less than 30 minutes. However the weather was beginning to turn nasty so everyone was more than happy to head for home.

Quarter Final Cup fixtures for 8th March

Next Saturday we will be playing our Quarter Final fixture in the Under 10 9-a-side Atlantic Homecare Cup.
It's unclear who we will be playing as there are two Castleknock Celtic teams through to this stage of the competition and the ndsl site has not made the distinction between the two.
Either tie will be tough one though, see below...

1. St. Ita's Portrane(C) vs. Castleknock Celtic(C or D?)
2. Dunshaughlin Youths(C1) vs. Woodlawn FC(C)
3. Castleknock Celtic(C or D?) vs. Maynooth Town(C)
4. Clontarf FC(C) vs. Dunshaughlin Youths(C)

It should be clear in the newspaper on Monday which match applies to us but for the moment, all we know is that it is either an away match against St. Ita's or a home match against Maynooth.
The winner of match 1 plays the winner of match 2 in the semi finals, and the winner of match 3 plays the winner of match 4, so I'm hoping we'll be travelling to Portrane on Saturday to play our match!!

Hard luck in your match today and see you at training on Monday, looks like we have a bit of work to do:)