Campile United draw thriller to take the title
IN the bright sunshine on Saturday morning Forth Celtic and Campile United youth teams played a thrilling 3-3 draw. Campile needed a point to secure the Youths Division 1 title and Forth Celtic needed a win to force a play-off which could have involved a third team Shelburne if they won their last two games.
The first five minutes saw a goal for Campile’s Darragh Kent from the penalty spot after a Forth Celtic defender was sent off for handling the ball on the goal line. There was good pressure from Campile for the next 15 minutes but Forth Celtic grew into the game and started to get the upper hand in some areas of the field.
Their hard work paid off ten minutes before half-time when Michael Sheil won the ball 30 yards out and beat a couple of the Campile defenders and fired a great strike past the Campile keeper.
Five minutes later the ball was in the Campile net again, a second for Sheil, but the scoring wasn’t finished.
With two minutes left in the first-half Campile’s number ten Ben Cummins rose to score a header to level the game 2-2 at half-time.
The second-half started much the same as the first with both teams trying hard to gain an advantage, with the Forth Celtic goalkeeper Jack O’Leary pulling of a fine save from Matthew Foley midway through the half.
Shortly after this Campile took the lead 3-2 after a Celtic defensive error saw Matthew Foley get the ball 20 yards out and he fired a great shot to the net.
With 15 minutes left Forth Celtic pushed forward for an equaliser and were rewarded for their hard work when Sam Audsley headed home from a cross down the left hand side. Both sides had chances to improve the scoreline, but to no avail as referee Mick Farrell blew the final whistle, with a draw being a fair result.
The draw was enough to see Campile crowned Division 1 champions. For Campile, Ben Cummins ran himself into the ground up front, Matthew Foley worked tirelessly, Darragh Kent and Colm Dawkins in midfield tried hard to pull the strings. The two wide men Evan Lyng and Barry Howlin Walsh worked the line up and back and put in a great effort. The back four of Jason Murphy, Cathal Mernagh, Jim Wallace, and Joe O’Sullivan were very strong and hardly put a foot wrong all day.
Ryan Rowe had a good day in the goal making a couple of good saves.
The management team of Ed Wallace and John Banville are very proud of the team and the way they played on Saturday and their attitude over the season.