Castleknock and Ratoath share the points in a scorcher of a match

It was a lovely day for football when Castleknock under 12 girls team played host to Ratoath Harps. Castleknock were keen to avenge their earlier 1-0 defeat in the opening game of the league. Castleknock were short of a few key players due to people going away for the the mid-term break, but we were able to field a full strangth team thanks to Aine Waters and Niamh O'Donovan running directly from a nearby Gaelic match to play two games in a row.

Both teams attacked strongly from the start and it was clear that this was going to be a very exciting game. Emma Boyle, Ellie Widle and Catherine Leahy played great football in mid-field and were able to supply plenty of great possesion to Niamh O'Donovan and Rebecca Stephens in attack.

Ratoath were not content to only defend and our captain Fiona Fitzgerald was kept busy in defence where she ws assisted by Rebecca Stephens and Aine Waters. Depite their best efforts Ratoath managed to get a number of shots on target. Luckily for us, our goalie Katie O'Sullivan was in cracking form and made several fine saves.

The sides were level 0-0 at half time, but the second half was barely underway when Emma Boyle made a great run up the pitch and took a powerful shot. The Ratoath keeper manaed to stop the shot, but Catherine Leahy was on hand to slot the ball into the net on a rebound.


Ratoath were not long in replying. Shortly afterwards they scored a powerful shot which left Katie with no chance to keep it out. Both sides had several more chances including one great header from Raotoath which scraped over the bar. There were no more scores for either side so we ended level 1-1.

It was a pity that Katie O'Sullivan had so many chances to show off her goalkeeping skills, but at it was a chance for her to earn the player of the match title.