Junior B Football vs Templeogue/Synge St (Championship)
Thu, 20th May 2004

Result: Castleknock 1.13 to Templeogue/Synge St 2.13

Castleknock bowed out of the D Championship to Templeogue/Synge St in a tight match in Porterstown last night. A strong team took the pitch in front of a sizeable home crowd on a perfect night for football.

Castleknock got off the mark with Sam knifing through for an early point. Templeogue got back into the match with some nice points of their own following some good interplay between their forwards. Stokesy took this as his cue to rally up the pitch in support of his forwards but after one burst he had reservations. It’s a lot handier in at full forward on the hurling team, horse. Aussie Mick had his hands full in midfield with a man twice his age. He was spotted boarding a CIE bus after the match with his free OAP bus pass but in fairness he gave as good as he got.

As the half wore on Castleknock got a foothold in the game with Rory Doogan making some telling runs from midfield and Raff winning some good ball on the edge of the square. This resulted in a few frees which ‘the Ice-Man’ Corkery slotted over. Score of the half was an outrageous effort from the sideline off the outside of the right boot from Big John. A flash score to match his flash personality. Unfortunately Templeogue snapped out of it and scored two break away goals through their lively forwards to go in six points up at the break.

Castleknock went out in a determined mood in the second half and rattled off an early score through the free-taking of JP ‘Letchkov’ Corkery. Templeogue weren’t going to lie down and matched Castleknock score for score. Rory Doogan really stepped up to the plate at this stage and fired over some vital scores for Castleknock. There was still 5 points in it when a long ball from Eoin Moloney found its way into the hands of the Raff and the Tribesman made no mistake from 10 yards. There was only 2 points in it now and Castleknock pushed on with Aussie Mick going in hard on Papa Smurf and releasing Stephen Keogan. Keogan was fouled and it was up to that man Vanilla Ice Corkery to slot over to leave the bare minimum between the sides.

Castleknock tried desperately to close the gap but some misplaced passes meant Templeogue gained possession to go back up the pitch and score two pints in quick succession. The referee blew the final whistle shortly afterwards to leave the Castleknock boys on the wrong side of the result after a manful effort.

Scorers: JP Corkery (0-5), Alan Raftery (1-1), Rory Doogan (0-3), Ambrose Galligan (0-1), Big John (0-1), Aussie Mick (0-1)
Team: Kevin Moynihan, Alfie Sawyer, John Mac, John Stokes, Eoin Maloney, Shane Reilly, Donegal Paul, Aussie Mick, Rory Doogan, Stephen Keogan, Ambrose Galligan, JP Corkery, Big John, Alan Raftery, Pat Lynch
Subs used: John Doogan