Tuesday 31st of October was a spooktacular evening. Kids and adults alike were dressing up for a bout of Halloween trick or treating. The annual trip to the Ploughing in September had given most Dublin schoolkids an ample supply of fireworks to cause havoc until the midterm break. Chelsea were taking on the mighty Roma in Italy at 19:45 in what would be a 3 goal feast for pub spectators. No clue if this actually was the case as the Men’s 2s had a game in Railway Union. The meet time -19:45. Great.
Not to be disheartened, the 2s tried their level best to wear fancy dress for the game while still complying with IHA rules. Sean Cassidy, Kev Murray and Jack Sheehan showed up as zombies. Remarkable commitment to the Halloween dress code shown by the boys by going on a 3 day bender at the varsities all weekend. Complimented nicely by Elliot who arrived looking like Death. Clearly battling the demons with the thought of excorcise for the first time in 2 weeks.
Alan O’Malley took a different approach to the festivities. He opted to act like a complete ghoul throughout the entire warm-up.
Coach Billy McNamara ran the touchline with the limp vigour of a man who had run the marathon 2 days before. Thankfully his voice was intact and he steered us well with a good Scream every now and then. By contrast, something clearly spooked Ciller. The man shook off the marathon cobwebs to play like a man possessed, causing the opposition nightmares at every turn.
Somewhere among all this a game happened. The first goal was a complete mystery. This journalist spotted €2 outside the fence, quite the treat, and missed what happened. By all accounts (Luke’s) it was a great goal, Milo Fulham dragging limply towards goal and Luke with an alleged enigmatic touch that opened his 2s account for the season. Unwilling to give Railway a tease of our unstoppable 1s penalty corner moves, the decision was made for Milo to launch weak drag after weak drag during corner time. The eerie choice eventually paying off with a wilting flick steered into the bottom corner with all the pace of a corpse getting up for breakfast.
Nidge ghosted in at the back post to make it 3 after grim Lukey reaped the rewards of a quick free. Milo was haunted yet again when a drag made it across the goal line with the help of the supernatural. 4-0 and cruising. Cue fireworks…and more fireworks… in fact the fireworks never once stopped.
Nathan and Peter weren’t nearly as headless in defence as usual. Coupled with Senan in frightening form in front of the nets, the lads in the skeleton back 5 kept their first white sheet of the season.
Yet again an unexplained injury to Darragh O’Brien ruled him out during the school holidays. He must have had other creeping plans.
The Garda escort through East Wall on the journey home ensured all the boys returned home by their mummy’s 10pm curfew. Halloween done for another year, we’re glad that one is Octover.
Match: Clontarf Men’s 2s vs Railway, 31/10/17
Result: 4-0
Squad: Bobbo, Sean C, Tom, Kev M, Al, Matty, Jack S, Ciller, Luke, Nigel, Nathan, Michael F, Elliot, Peter, Senan
Coach: Billy
Goals: Michael Fulham x2, Luke x1, Nidge x1
Written by: Nigel Bateman