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A top three finish for the eight consecutive season is an impressive level of consistency at Junior level but unfortunately we had no silverware to show for our efforts last season. Celtic got their league campaign off to a good start with wins against Peake Villa and Borris. However the first points of the season were dropped at home to newly promoted Tipperary Town when Celtic had to rely on a last minute equaliser from Kevin Waters to share the points. Celtic bounced back from this mini setback in the league with another two impressive wins before an acceptable point away to neighbours Town. However their league challenge began to falter when the dropped another two home points against Old Bridge when they had to settle for a 2-2 draw. A draw away to Peake Villa and defeat to St Michaels early in 2017 effectively ended Celtic’s league challenge. In fairness they battled on until the end finishing with a reasonable haul of 34 points in a league campaign where they only tasted defeat twice, on both occasions to eventual champions St Michaels. Celtic have had some exciting runs in the FAI Junior Cup in recent years but last year definitely won’t count as one of them. After making it through to the open stage last 64 draw following a tough 1-0 victory against Bansha Celtic we were given a home draw against Kerry champions Dingle Bay Rovers. They say that a home draw is hugely important in the FAI Junior Cup but Celtic limped out of the competition with a very disappointing 2-0 defeat. After a fairly even opening half that was scoreless Celtic simply failed to show up in the second half and as poor a performance as we seen in this competition in recent years lead to their exit. Celtic also failed to progress in the Munster Junior Cup but on this occasion they could count themselves a little unlucky to go down to a 2-1 extra time defeat to a Peake Villa side enjoying one of their best seasons in recent years. After a fairly even first half that saw Celtic trail 1-0 at the break they were much the better side in the second period and fully deserved the equaliser that came from Seanie O’Hara, though we did have to wait until the last minute for it to arrive. In extra time the game evened up again and just one lapse in concentration was to prove fatal for Celtic. Celtic met Villa again in the semi final of the Tipperary Cup in Clonmel but on this occasion they couldn’t have had too many complaints with the Thurles side edging through to the final on a 3-2 scoreline. I think it is reasonable to point out that a common characteristic of all our defeats last season was the absence of our club captain David Joyce. There’s no doubt that our club captain and now international has a huge influence and a fully fit David Joyce could have turned a distinctly average season into a successful one and may even have won us a trophy had his season not been interrupted so much by injury. I think that it has been said before that a huge turnaround in players at Clonmel Celtic has made for a very challenging transitional period for the club and we must commend Kenny O’Shea on how he has managed this challenge over the last two seasons. Every club loses players but it’s the amount of players Celtic have lost through emigration, injury, retirement in such a short period has undoubtedly made for a trying couple of years for the club. There is still a core group of very experienced players and if we can add 5 or 6 young players eager to make an impression there’s no reason why Celtic cannot continue to compete well for the next few years.
Next week in our final review we will look at the Ladies and off the field activities.