AC Celtic may only be in existence just over 20 years but has already established itself during that spell as one of the leading clubs on the underage football scene in Athlone.
As the name AC suggests, the club has its roots in the Auburn Heights and Cartrontroy residential areas of the town. Then, such local stalwarts as Michael Seery, organised street leagues and tournaments while the club was put on a formal setting with its foundation in 1998.
A number of locations were used as pitches before the club eventually settled on the fine facilities at Tormey Villas. The local committee have put a lot of work into providing facilities for the area with a community centre complimenting a full-size pitch and training area.
Having the facility available to them has boosted AC in their search for players and generally getting people involved in the running of the club. The excellent surface means very few games fall foul of the bad weather and aids considerably when fulfilling fixtures.
In recent years, the club has acted as a nursery for many of the senior clubs in Athlone. Having learned the basics with Celtic, progression was then made to the older levels. This year alone, a number have also signed up with Athlone Town in their under age set up with a view to eventually starring on the senior national stage. One example in the recent past has been Joe Carmody who played with the club up to 2015. Carmody has since performed in the SSE Airtricity League with Athlone and also had a spell with Galway United.
Unfortunately, the Midland Schoolboy/girl league has declared the 2019/20 season to be null and void. AC along with other local clubs St Francis, Willow Park and St Josephs take part in competitions run by the MSL. Following consultation with the clubs, the feedback was that most wanted to draw a line under the current campaign. It basically meant that any team that mathematically had won their division would be crowned champions.
The possibility of a merit award being given to those teams that wanted to finish the season was to be looked at. The good news though is that the clubs involved will not have long to wait for action to resume. A return to training allowed the players to shake off the lockdown cobwebs. The 2020/21 season is scheduled to commence in mid-September for all age groups and Celtic will be all set for a return to competitive action.
The year started with the under 16 Whites team in action against Kilbeggan. In spite of putting in a strong and spirited performance, the opposition goalkeeper ensured the year started on a losing note. The under 16 Blues team also resumed with a huge game in the last 32 of the SFAI Skechers Cup. Played at Athlone IT, St Josephs Boys provided the opposition. It was all square at half time but the visitors edged the second half to win by the odd goal in five.
The girl’s squad were in indoor action as they competed in the Futsal tournament. It was a winning outing as the team were the B final winners with Isobelle Kearney and Chloe Madden on target in the decider. The bad weather halted the season but when action resumed the winning streak locally by the Blues continued.
Rivals, St Joseph’s, gave them a tough time but the Blues ground out a single score win. Darren Quinn was the AC hero between the posts as he made a fine save from a penalty kick.
The Whites were again out of luck when travelling to take on Killeigh. The hosts raced into a three nil half time lead but AC were much improved when play resumed. Having hit the post three times in the opening half, Celtic finally found the net after the break but had left themselves too much to do to gain any reward.
