Jack Kavanagh scored all 4 goals on the day to help his Arklow Celtic side to a second win in the league against Coolboy Rangers.
Having won their first match of the Wicklow and District Football League Division 1 against Wicklow Rovers B just the previous weekend, it was back on the road for the team on Sunday 18th October.
Coolboy Sports Field was the venue to face the team they had played on a number of occasions previously in pre-season friendly matches in the form of Coolboy Rangers.
The Wicklow side began well and were playing some nice football when in the fifth minute of play Craig Caulfield, was caught in the eye by an elbow and was forced from the field for stitches.
Jack Kavanagh scored his first of 4 goals for Celtic just 7 minutes into proceedings when a corner from the left by Dylan Smith found Nathan Doyle at the far post. Doyle headed the ball down to the feet of Kavanagh who turned and fired the ball home to the keeper’s right.
In the end though there was little between two evenly matched sides and they went in at the break with the score line still reading 1-0 to Celtic.
Coolboy got back into the match and found themselves on level terms after being awarded a penalty after an infringement on a Coolboy player inside the box. The home team’s captain stepped forward to take the kick, and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to make it 1-1.
In the second half Celtic regained ascendancy and started to press the Coolboy players higher up the field. The Coolboy defenders were forced to clear their lines under pressure from the Celtic players.
Celtic regained possession of the ball in the Coolboy defense and a great move of passing culminated with Chris Furlong delivering a magnificent ball to Kavanagh, who made the run beyond his marker.
The play was moved on down the field where it was worked into the Celtic midfield area, where the ball was collected by the elusive Chris Furlong.
As Celtic were now 2-0 up after this fine goal by Kavanagh, Coolboy’s goalkeeper was called into action shortly afterwards when a foul on the home side’s captain was awarded a penalty to the home side.
A penalty to Coolboy for an inside the box incident had the home side’s captain stepping forward to take it sending the Celtic goalkeeper the wrong way.
The Coolboy captain then stepped up to equalise for the home side and made sure to send the wrong way Celtic goalkeeper Brody Tector for the equaliser to make it 2-1 to the away side.
It looked for a short time as though the scores were to return to a single digit lead for the home side but the visitors fended off the pressure to re-establish a two goal lead.
Mikey Doyle provided the pass for Celtic’s third goal. The pass released Kavanagh who was to finish the game with a hat-trick of goals after he confidently placed the ball into the far corner of the net to seal all three points for his side after a excellent counter attack down the right side of the Coolboy defense.
Kavanagh was not finished there.
The same attack was then released on the right again, and this time the delivery of a pinpoint cross by Mikey Doyle allowed Kavanagh to show his pace down the line and his close control to beat a couple of defenders before scoring in the far corner of the net for his fourth goal of the afternoon.
Kavanagh completes his hat-trick in style of 4th goal of the day!
While Kavanagh is the focal point of the scoring he is not a lone gunner and was very much supplied by his team-mates throughout the game.
Mikey Doyle scored two assists for Celtic as he set up the 3rd and 4th goals for the team, with the other 2 assists coming from Nathan Doyle and Chris Furlong.
Another unusual thing about the forwards on Celtic’s efficient attack was that they had been celebrating a day in which the team’s main scorer had collected 4 goals, but his teammates had been later chuckling and kicking his backside as he kicked a ball on the ground elsewhere on the pitch down at Arklow, reminding him of when he had had chances of scoring 6 on the day.
Apart from Kavanagh’s sublime finishing, there was plenty for Celtic to appreciate throughout their weekend’s play.
The loss of Caulfield to injury in the opening stages of the game meant that Celtic were forced to reshuffle their side, and the first-half pressure from the home side as well as the resulting penalty to be awarded to them had to be overcome by the visitors.
Despite the setback of losing Caulfield to injury, the visitors maintained their composure and Celtic’s attacking combinations were effortless in the latter stages of the match.
This was their second win in the league, following their 4-2 win over Wicklow Rovers B on Sunday 11th October.
Celtic continue to look to establish themselves as a top side in the division after scoring 8 goals in 2 matches.
All the club can do now is wish Caulfield a speedy recovery from his injury as Celtic will now turn their attention to Sunday’s home encounter with Roundwood, scheduled for 11.30am on the 2th of October.
