U17 Castleview 1 Passage AFC 4, Sunday Sept. 21st
Castleview 1 Passage AFC 4
Sunday Sept. 21st
High up on the northside of the city, in beautiful Autumn sunshine, the Passage bandwagon rolled on. They won this game by a decent margin, but it wasn’t easy. Or not as easy as it should have been.
In the first ten minutes they launched a number of attacks, Joe bintou leading the line and causing the Castleview defence all sorts of problems. Left-back Jeff Hayden got in a couple of attempts from distance too.
At the other end Daniel Cashman and Kevin Byrne reacted quickly to trouble, but with the midfield failing to maintain a grip on things there was always a sense that Castleview might create chances.
Passage looked the more dangerous in attack. Outpacing his markers, Joe Bintou tore into the penalty a couple of times and came close to scoring. As Passage kept up the pressure a goal seemed inevitable.
Another long ball was nicely controlled by Joe Bintou and he let rip with a powerful shot that ricocheted off the keeper. Mohi Perata pounced and took his goal well. 1-0 to Passage.
In the middle of the park Joe Brown was having his best game of the season, running with the ball into the Castleview half a number of times. Picking up one pass from Sam Mealy he moved forward and got in a shot that was narrowly wide.
Then came the pass of the match, and a goal to match it. Joe Brown hit a diagonal ball from the edge of the penalty area, to the far post. And there was Matthew Scannell, timing his run and header perfectly to make it 2-nil.
But Castleview weren’t finished. One of their players going down the left-wing, turned inside and fired a low shot that found the net. 2-1.
The re-start saw Castleview chasing an equaliser and winning two corners. Nothing came of it and Passage hit them on the break with some great passing. A ball to Joe Bintou was squared to Mohi Parata, who side-footed it home for his second goal. It was now 3-1.
Late on Mark Hanlon came on and with his first kick took a corner, which curled inside the near post to stretch the lead to 4-1.
There were flashes of what Passage are capable of. Some of their passing was so sharp and effortless you had to wonder why they don’t do it all the time.
