Sun, 2nd July 2006

Result: 3.11 to 3.03

The Castleknock Junior ‘A’s recorded their seventh league victory on the trot on Sunday morning in Porterstown Park, against a rousing St.Joseph’s side. With only four points from a possible fourteen, Joey’s had their backs to the wall facing the league leaders, and came out all guns blazing for the opening half.

The visitors opened the scoring with a long range effort three minutes from the start, and were making life difficult for their opponents during the early stages, with their wiry number nine, Chris McGrath, gaining a lot of possession in the middle of the park. It took nearly ten minutes for Castleknock to register their first score, after full forward David Leydon was quickest in pouncing to the breaking ball, and struck it over the bar. The ‘Knock’ then awoke from their slumber and gained control of the game. The most noticeable asset of theirs was the excellent ball winning skills of the inside forwards, O’Grady, Leydon and Molloy.

Still, as it converted into a game fully dominated by the home side, where wave after wave of attacks broke the Josephs defence, a small amount of moves resulted in scores, highlighting their lack of ability in front of the posts. They began to play some eye- pleasing football five minutes from the break, stirred by Paddy O’Briens well worked goal. Ambrose Galligan then latched onto a lobbong ball to supply a neat finish, leaving the half time score 3- 6 to 1-02 in Castleknocks favour.

The second half proved to be much of the same as Castleknock continued to over-power their opponents but failed to show their full potential, and how they are an un-beaten side. A well dispatched penalty from lead scorer Paddy Molloy ended the game as a contest, and a red card for the Joey’s full back for consistent back chat with the referee further aggravated his team, who now hover dangerously above the relegation zone.

A big plus for the ‘Knock’ was avoiding any injuries as they now enter a season changing week, with the championship replay against Civil Service at 7.45pm on Thursday, in Islanbridge, and the 2nd round of the leinster junior championship on Saturday, away to Starlights. Manager Willy Brennan is confident of his side’s chances in escaping the week un-defeated, and, is fully focused on continuing their un-beaten run with Thursday nights encounter.

Castleknock: E.O’Brien, S.McCabe, D.Lally, A.Rafferty, B.Kelly(0-1), J.McMenamin, G.O’Brien, S.Lynch, D.Brady, P.O’Brien(1-1), E.O’Callaghan(0-1),A.Galligan(1-2), P.Molloy(1-4),D.Leydon(0-1),D.O’Grady(0-1)