Park Celtic Football Club

On a beautiful spring morning, we headed out to Tallaght knowing that we had a difficult task. Jobstown were top of the league and had beaten Ratoath who in turn had out-classed us. Having said that we drew with them on the opening day of the season so were not intimidated.

Evan started in goals and did really well, keeping a clean sheet until he retired injured after bravely throwing himself on the ball at the feet of an on-rushing attacker, shipping studs to his knees for his troubles. The first half was very evenly matched and it was a good game of football, nip and tuck with very few chances at either end. We played really well, keeping our shape and were looking forward to the second half.

Cian Murray was in goal for the second half and was a bit busier than Evan. His huge kick-outs were a great help, although we did not make as much use of them as we have in the past. We broke the dead-lock after a few minutes when their keeper went walk-about and we slotted into an empty net after a great pass. We were no length ahead when the ref have a very poor free at the edge of the area and they scored after a goal mouth scramble. It was a very poor decision by the ref who was doing well up to that point. He did however atone for his sins a short time later after we committed a blatant deliberate hand-ball in the box and he did not blow the whistle. We seemed to loose our shape and energy after that, defiantly dropping a gear. There was one player who kept the pace up, CianC. He ran tirelessly for the entire game and committed to every tackle. He played between midfield and defence and covered a lot of ground, still managing to come off the pitch with a smile on his face. A well deserved man of the match award. We were sucked punched with a second goal with only a few minutes to go, again after a goal mouth scramble, and the ball could have gone anywhere.

It was a good competitive match, and while the result was disappointing, the performance was not.

Jobstown FC 2 – 1 Park Celtic.