Castleknock 1-10 Raheny 0-16

A hugely frustrating evening for Castleknock as a hotly disputed ‘disallowed’ Conor Chawke goal four minutes into the second-half ultimately decided this Senior 1 Football Championship Round 2 match in favour of Raheny in well attended St. Annes Park.

Having fallen behind after just 90 seconds it was only when Castleknock drew level for the second time after 50 minutes that victory really looked possible but those hopes were dashed when four pointed Raheny frees in the final ten minutes left that agonising goal margin still in it at the end.

Admittedly Castleknock struggled to find any sort of rhythm in the first-half and it took a brilliant Morven Connolly save on three minutes to deny Raheny an early goal.

In spite of that Castleknock ended the first-quarter level at 0-4 each. All those scores came from play, from Tommy McDaniel who ducked and dived before shooting the first and who then hit another huge score from out on the left.

Conor Chawke and Ben Galvin added further well-worked points to leave it 0-4 apiece after 14 minutes. The second-quarter was dominated by Raheny and while Gerard McDermottroe pointed Castleknock’s only close in free of the half, three minutes from the break, Raheny went in with a healthy four point lead, 0-9 0-5.

Castleknock’s intent was immediately clear on the resumption as was shown on four minutes by James Tolan. His searing run through the Raheny defence ended with an offload to Conor Chawke who guided the ball to the Raheny net for what looked a superb goal.

Much to everyone’s amazement however the score was disallowed and to make matters even worse within a minute Raheny midfielder Brian Fenton made it double scores 0-10 0-5 in favour of the home team.

It was then Castleknock’s turn to dominate. First Ciarán Kilkenny set up Gerard McDermottroe for a fine point. Then a terrific Rob Shaw turnover allowed Tommy McDaniel reduce the difference to just three points and when Ciarán Kilkenny pulled off a huge catch in midfield to put Gerard McDermottroe through for an 8th Castleknock point the game looked there for the winning.

Raheny did hit back with two points before, 19 minutes into the second-half, Darragh Warnock picked up the ball in midfield and pumped it into the Raheny full-back line where Conor Chawke rose highest to fist the ball to the roof of the net – and this time there was no disputing it.

Darragh Warnock was involved again two minutes later in winning the free that set up Tommy McDaniel for the equalising point nine minutes from time but sadly that was as good as it got.

In the final minutes Raheny tagged on four close-in pointed frees to just one Castleknock point from Eoin O’Brien after a brilliant interception to bring an extremely exasperating evening to an end. Next up it’s Kilmacud Crokes – a must win now.

Castleknock: Morven Connolly; Ciaran Murphy; Eoin O’Brien (0-1); Tom Quinn; James Tolan; Ciarán Kilkenny; Rob Shaw; Shane Boland; Darragh Warnock; Kevin Kindlon; Ben Galvin (0-1); Seamus O’Carroll; Conor Chawke (1-1); Gerard McDermottroe (0-3); Tommy McDaniel (0-4). Subs: Paul Bourke; Kevin Stephenson.

Manager: Declan O’Sullivan
Report: Kevin Mallon