Junior A Football vs St. Marks
Sun, 2nd March 2003
Result: 2-06 to 3-05
Adult Football League -Narrow defeat for Castleknock ‘A’ v St. Marks.
Adult Football Division 7

St. Mark’s Tallaght 3-5 v Castleknock ‘A’ 2-6

On a bright Sunday morning in Tallaght, Castleknock ‘A’ suffered defeat on their first league game of the season. Due to unplayable pitches the match was delayed by 1 ½ hours to facilitate a camogie match due to start at the same time. Who said football was more important than hurling in Dublin? Sitting on a bench for over an hour brought back memories for many of the panel as they had spent most of their sporting careers in that same location. Finally news arrived that the game was about to take place and the players took their positions on the field.

Castleknock got off to the worst possible start, when straight from the throw-in, Marks worked the ball up the pitch against the wind and banged in a goal within 15 seconds. Straight away though, driven on by the lilting tones of Colin McGuckin (reminiscent of a young Josef Locke), Castleknock bounced back. A long ball from midfield beat everyone except the onrushing Peter McKillen who slotted the ball neatly into the back of Marks’ net. 1 goal apiece and the match not even started yet. Castleknock stepped up the pressure and began to dominate. The midfield of Declan Reilly and Eoin O’Callaghan were working in tandem and finding the forwards with their passes. A couple of well-worked moves resulted in points for Barry Farrelly and Gerry Kelly and Eoin Moloney chipped in with a dinger from the left wing. Marks were finding their scores harder to come by due to the resolute defending of Denis Lally and Dave Dempsey. Then Castleknock took the initiative when a good ball from Barry Farrelly to Peter McKillen resulted in the Roadrunner finding the net again. Castleknock went off at the break 2-4 to 1-3 up but with the wind to play against.

In the second half Castleknock found the going a lot tougher and any advantage was hard won. St Marks defence were beginning to attack incoming ball and drive it long down towards Castleknock’s goal. Still the Castleknock defence held firm restricting Marks to just four scores in the second half, especially as Marks brought on a few nippy forwards with mucky legs. Unfortunately, two of the scores were goals. Pandemonium in the square resulted in a loose Marks foot rifling the ball to the net and then a long high ball into the square was met with a fist by the tall powerful Marks full forward leaving Tony Nulty with no chance (Joe Coyle, where was the objection?). Castleknock had a big challenge ahead of them and they managed to make some inroads into the Marks defence with Tony Corcoran (sporting a new smig) and Barry Farrelly getting on the scoreboard. Things got so desperate that even Davy Leydon was moved up front but alas it was a case of too little too late. Castleknock will have to learn to kill off games once in the lead if they are going to push for promotion in this league, although it wasn’t for lack of fitness that Castleknock were found wanting. A few ballwork sessions in Porterstown should do the trick. Cool Hand come back, all is forgiven.

Scorers: Peter McKillen (2-0), Barry Farrelly (0-2), Eoin Moloney, Gerry Kelly, Dominic Smith, Tony Corcoran (0-1 each)

Team: Tony Nulty, Martin Griffin, Denis Lally, Colin McGuckin, Willie Fogarty, Davy Leydon, David Dempsey, Declan Reilly, Eoin O’Callaghan, Gerry Kelly, Barry Farrelly, Peter McKillen, Niall Tutty, Dominic Smith, Eoin Moloney.Subs used: Tony Corcoran, John McMennamin, Dave Rafferty