Drumcondra  4  Castleknock Celtic  5

4/5/03

Away to Drums in Clonturk Park, Celtic seemed to be cruising when they led 3-1 at half-time.  Ronan Hayes made it 1-0 to the visitiors, followed by strikes from Chris Hoey and Ricky Flanagan.  Drums pulled one back before half-time.

Drums came out fired up for the challenge in the second half.  Soon they were only 2-3 in arrears. But Ricky Flanagan struck for his second to restore Celtic's two goal advantage.  4-2.  But Drums unleashed an onslaught and were all-square at 4-4 before you could say 'jumping Jack flash' - now that's a good line for a song.  Then hero of the day, Ricky completed his hat-trick five minutes from time, to give Celtic the narrowest of wins and enabled them to do the double over the renowned Drums.  While Ricky was doing the business for Celtic's U-12's, he missed his Mum put on the performance of the year at the 11 o'clock Mass, which was televised - what an inspiration.  Well done Martina, for her musical direction, and to her colleagues in the choir for making it a 'must have' in any good video collection.

NDSL Under-12D

Castleknock Celtic  4  Maynooth Town  1

1/5/03

A fine display by the home side who were always on top.  This was a complete reversal of the corresponding fixture in Maynooth a couple of weeks ago, which was won 4-0 by Maynooth.  This time however the Hoops were on song.  Barry McKiernan put them ahead, which was equalised by Maynooth.  But an unfortunate lapse by the visiting defender led to a penalty for Celtic for a handball in the box.  Chris Hoey stepped up and made no mistake with a firm shot to the right, under the goalkeeper.  It was ironic that Celtic had missed two penalties in the away game!  2-1 at half-time.

Two substitutions by manager Mr Hoey proved decisive.  Kevin Lynch and Eoin Devlin came on and both scored, the latter latching on to a cross, which he rifled home.  It was Eoin's first of the season, and it was worth the wait, a gem.