Castleknock Celtic under 9 soccer team

There was great tension for our quarter final match against Howth. We knew the match would be tight because we had been level until the final 5 minutes in our previous match. The sun was shining brightly when we arrived in Porterstown. The Howth team were late turning up, so it looked for a while that we might even get a walk over.

However, once the match got under way it was clear that this was going to be no easy match. Howth started to attack early and were awarded a penalty for a dubious hand-ball in the area. Lucky for us they kicked the ball over the bar, although Cathal was well lined up to save it anyway.

Shortly afterwards, Howth managed to score a goal and take the lead. Our captain Nado was ably assisted by Omar, David and Robert to dominate the mid-field and kept a strong supply of balls into Niamh and Zhudi in the attack. However, we were unable to break through and the score remained 1-0 at half time.

In the second half we kept the pressure up and their goalie was barely able to control a header and follow up shot from Niamh. Shortly afterwards Zhhudi leveled the scores.

Despite several attacks from Howth, they were unable to break through the rock-solid defense of Frank and Andy. Our goalie Cathal was more than able for any ball that came through so the match ended level 1-1.

We started the extra-time strongly. The fact that all our players had a chance to rest while being subbed out, gave us an advantage because we had fresher legs. As we got near to the end of the first half of extra-time our man-of-the-match Dylan scored the winning goal with a brilliant shot from outside the penalty area.

Howth did everything they could to try and level the score, but our defence was too strong and we held out until the final whistle. We now are all looking forward to the semi-final.

Labels: match_report