Castlebar Celtic have started to feel the pinch of the economic downturn and on the playing front their Newstalk A League side are starting to feel the effects.
“Work has to take precedence for the lads and I understand that completely, but we’re gone from a stage where we had 25 top class lads signed at the start of the year to where we are now down to the bare bones of the squad,” Celtic manager Declan Kilkelly told the Mayo Advertiser this week. Celtic will be making the trip to Offaly to take on Tullamore Town on Saturday evening, but Kilkelly knows it will take a huge performance from his side to come away with the win. “We’ll be struggling for numbers, in the last few weeks we’ve lost two lads to the UK and another to America, but they have to do that and take care of themselves.”
Not for the first time this season, Kilkelly looks like he will have to go between the sticks for Celtic as the supply of keepers has run thin on the ground for his side. “Danny O’Leary is injured and Robbie Hennelly can’t play this weekend, so it looks like I’ll have to go in goal at the minute. It’s far from an ideal situation, but we have to do these things.” Bringing up someone from the youth team isn’t really an option at the moment, according to Kilkelly. “You can’t expect to throw a 16-year-old lad into goal in a game at this level, it would be completely unfair on him to try and compete physically at a senior level like this.”
Last weekend Celtic went down 2-1 to Shelbourne in Celtic Park and the Celtic boss thinks his side should have won the game. “We were the better side for the vast majority of the game, but two mistakes cost us. Any mistake when you are playing at this level is going to hurt you, but we have to put it behind us and concentrate on what’s coming up this weekend.”
Celtic will play Tullamore Town in Tullamore tomorrow evening Saturday July 3, at 7pm.
