Adult Hurling vs St. Vincents
Fri, 25th June 2004

Result: 1-10 to 0-11

Castleknock continue their vein of good form with a hard fought victory over St Vincents, on a balmy Porterstown last Friday. The home side was missing many regulars such as Ciaran O’Dwyer, Paddy Wade, Michael Barry, Tim Dawson, Cuán Mac Áogain, Ciarán Galloway.

Castleknock got off to a great start with Paul Morrissey dominating in the full forward line, scoring a fine point from play to settle any nerves that may have existed. St. Vincents to their credit were competitive and pointed over some frees to ensure that the margin between the teams was always kept to a bare minimum. One of the highlights of the first half had to be an outstanding save from Brian Lawlor, whose full-length dive meant that St. Vincents never went ahead in this match. Paul Morrissey kept punishing St. Vincents by pointing all the frees with some ease. A fine point from play by Ciaran O’Brien, making his debut, helped Castleknock ahead at the break by 0.6 points to 0.5 .

The second half continued on a similar path to the first with both teams exchanging scores. Martin Mangan the Castleknock manager made one of his familiar tactical switches and moved Ken Walsh from corner forward back to his familiar left corner back role. With the full back restored to it’s normal members, it continued to keep the scoring chances to a minimum. A fine move by Castleknock showed that the training taking place was beginning to reap dividends as a sweeping three man move
resulted in Ciaran O’Brien scoring an excellent point. As the marginbetween the teams was failing to grow, Mick Stokes made a short burst through the defence and then drove the ball low and hard into the away side’s net. St. Vincents never gave up and continued to compete strongly and reduced the deficit again. Enda Shiels (hasn’t been called up yet for the Galway seniors yet) scored a fine point as both sides exchanged further points before the referee ended the game.

Castleknock ran out winners on a scoreline of 1-10 to 0-11 in what proved to be, an entertaining game. What was very satisfying to management was the performance of the newer and younger members of the Castleknock panel. Mick Geaney, Paul Morrissey and Ciaran O’Brien had particularly good games amid a very good overall team performance.