Catholic Utd v Rayleigh Town

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Welcome to the supporters of Rayleigh Town FC, we hope you have an enjoyable, and warm, afternoon.

At the time of writing this, I am looking at the weather forecast and once again, we are looking at the possibility of frozen pitches and perhaps a dusting of snow. I don’t mind snow, I just wish it were in the summer when there is no football on, but we know that is a natural/enviromental impossibility!!!

We arrive today on the back of our first league match for two months, such has been our success in cup competitions so far this season. The 4-1 win here at the Len Forge against Kelvedon Hatch was a welcome three points and ensured we continued our form from cup-to-league.

The first goal came in the third minute, Frank Craik cutting in from the left to fire his shot at the keepers near post, the ball sliding under his body. It stayed at 1-0 for the remainder of the first half, but credit to Hatch, they did have good spells of possession and the team had to work hard to press and break this down.

The conditioning work pre-season, at Jay Nash’s Specifix Studio and at training each week, has certainly made the whole squad that much fitter than last season.

There were a lot of chances being created which pleased Simon Thomas immensely, with Tom Kearney, Baldwin, Burrows and Craik going close, but a finger tip save by Godwin-Green kept the visitors at bay with their best chance of the half.

FROM THE EDITOR

Just two minutes after the break, Craik’s dinked cross from the right found the head of Aaron Baldwin who guided the ball past the keeper. Hatch reduced the deficit with a small ball over the top for the forward to place a shot across Godwin-Green.

Two goals in the final ten minutes secured the win, Tom Kearney side footing home following a great run down the right by Harrison Day. Day would scored our fourth with a minute remaining. A corner found Tom Elliott who headed down past the keeper but Day was on hand to force it home past the defender on the line.

It was a well rounded performance in my eyes, good defending, chances created and four goals chalked up. More of the same will be needed for our games in hand. Those games in hand will be taking place midweek now as the EOFL have a strict end date for the league to finish. Visit our website, https://www.catholicutd.co.uk for our fixture dates.

Our competitive records go back to 2011, and since then we have played Rayleigh Town 12 times.

We have won on 7 ocassions, drawing once and losing 4 times. We have scored 28 goals and conceded 20.

Let’s take a closer look at fixtures where we have played at home. There have been 7 fixtures, with us winning 4, drawing 1 and losing 2. We have scored 15 and conceded 13. It’s decidedly close so today should be interesting!

Brad Rowland (5), Simon Thomas (3) and Aaron Baldwin (3) are our top scorers against Town.

In our last outing, a 2nd round EOFL league cup game in Feb 2022, Aaron Baldwin, Alfie Whiteaker and Jay Nash were our scorers in a 3-2 home win.

If the rain holds off I’m hoping to trial a behind the goal remote camera, taking the pictures using a pedal. Pressing a pedal means I keep me hands free for my normal camera. Behind the goal camera’s are notoriously hit and miss in terms of getting a good picture but if successful, can produce some great action images.

I’m looking to use this same setup for photographing Leyton Orient FC Women’s team on Sunday.

I’ve also been nominated to receive recognition as a Grassroots media manager by the Essex FA for January. As I write this, I’ve made the cut to the public vote, so if you are on Twitter, it would be appreciated if you could take a second to vote for me. You can find the vote on the Essex FA Twitter account 9www.twitter.com/EssexCountFA.

Enjoy the game and most importantly, have a safe journey home.

Rob Lilley

CUFC Media Manager

Thomas Kearney turns after scoring his 53rd career goal for Catholic Utd, the assist coming from Harrison Day...

Hello and welcome to the management team and players from Rayleigh Town football club.

We got back to some league action last weekend and it was a long time coming. Two months since we last played in the league and there was always a worry that we would have a bit of a hangover from all of our cup games. Thankfully we managed to overcome a well drilled side in Kelvedon Hatch. It was good to welcome back Harrison Day, with Concord Rangers match postponed, we managed to give him some game time and he ended up with a goal and an assist. To run out 4-1 winners was a great end to a hard afternoon.

Our strong links with our reserve team is giving us the means to keep players fit and give them game time when returning from injury. Eamonn and I discuss things quite a lot and we’re seeing the fruits of our labour. We also introduced James Ainslie to first team football in our Larkspur Rovers game in December so we’re still giving opportunities to the reserve team players based on our discussions.

We’re back in cup action today and we’ve always had enjoyable competitive games against Rayleigh Town. I don’t think today will be any different but with this cold spell we’re having, I’m just glad we’re on a 3G pitch and I can spend the afternoon shouting as I do.

Enjoy the game today and have a safe journey home.

Simon Thomas

Official Media Partner

Since 1897 we are stooped in local history, moving to our current home venue in 1972 with some fantastic facilities available. All coaches have (or are working towards) FA accredited badges which include both Safeguarding Certification and First Aid Training direct from the FA, along with fully compliant CRB clearance on all coaching staff.

The passion of our volunteer coaches is mirrored by that of the clubs staff, committee & parents, therefore naturally flowing into our interaction with children from the age of 3 right through to the Men’s teams.

COME AND JOIN BELFAIRS GOLF CLUB

LURGAN CELTIC FOOTBALL

CLUB

Official Allegiance Club

Sharing club values of being open and inclusive to all, to encompass and represent all members in the community and society in which we operate

Team photo by Chris Totten

LURGAN CELTIC

As our ties with Celtic Football Club grow stronger following Calvin Carter-Vickers permanent transfer a few weeks ago, we decided it would be good to seek out other like-minded clubs that have the same values that we do.

During pre-season we reached out to Lurgan Celtic to cement an official allegiance, and a club we are happy to introduce to everyone.

So, who are Lurgan Celtic FC?

A club by the name of Lurgan Celtic was originally formed in 1903, with the obvious slant of aiming towards the Roman Catholic community of the town, adopting the name and colours of Glasgow Celtic, a popular club among the Irish Catholics population of Glasgow and the west of Scotland. At the time it was a bold move to try and break into the world of football. The Gaelic Athletic Association was in its early stages and was keen to promote Gaelic sports and football in particular, perceived as “foreign”, was discouraged. A change in attitudes gradually took hold in the early 1970s and Lurgan Celtic was reborn to try its luck again in the local football scene, quickly rising to become one of the strongest clubs in the Craigavon area.

Irish Football League membership remained elusive during these years, partly due to the presence of Glenavon down the road at a time when the IFA was trying to reach out to new footballing towns. There was also a suggestion that it was the club’s clearly Nationalist stance as they pushed for membership of what was considered a predominantly Unionist league that stood in their way at that time. So strongly was this felt that the club joined forces with Belfast club Donegal Celtic, another club that took its name and kit from the Glasgow club, and threatened the League with legal action to gain membership. The restructuring of the league in the early part of the 21st century eventually resulted in both Celtic clubs gaining admission to the Irish Football League Second Division for the 2002–03 season.

In 2003 the club closed their town centre ground and relocated to share Oxford United’s ground on the edge of Lurgan at Knockramer Park, which offered better facilities.

Promotion to the Intermediate League First Division was achieved in 2006–07, but in 2008 the club failed to meet the criteria for a place in the new IFA Championship, and found itself in the IFA Interim League for the 2008–09 season. They successfully made the necessary improvements to gain admission to the newly formed third tier, IFA Championship 2, for the 2009–10 season. After seven seasons of consolidation in Championship 2 with occasional flirts with relegation, Celtic surged to the 2014–15 NIFL Championship 2 title, achieving promotion to the national second tier, Championship 1.

On the back of their title success the previous season, Celtic pulled off one of the local game’s biggest giant-killing acts of the 21st century. After reaching the quarter-finals for the first time ever in the 2015–16 Irish Cup, Celtic were drawn to face senior NIFL Premiership side and beaten Irish Cup finalists the previous year, Portadown away at Shamrock Park. Celtic stunned the Ports by taking a 2–0 lead after 54 minutes. However, Portadown came back into the match after 70 minutes with two goals of their own to level the score at 2–2. However, Lurgan Celtic had the last say, and scored a last-minute penalty to win 3–2 and cause a major upset by eliminating Portadown and reaching the semi-finals of the cup for the first time in the club’s history. The match was also notable as Portadown’s final match under the management of Ronnie McFall. After the match, the Portadown manager resigned, ending his reign at the club after 29 years.[2] In the Irish Cup semifinal they were defeated 3–0 by Linfield with Aaron Burns scoring a hat-trick.

Despite the achievement of reaching the IrishCup semi-finals, manager Colin Malone resigned at the end of the 2016-17 season and the club endured a period of instability. The appointment of Brendan Shannon as Celtic player-manager could not prevent a serious downturn in results, and Shannon left halfway through the 2017-18 season, to be succeeded by Frankie Wilson. By this point, relegation to the third tier had become an inevitability; Celtic finished the season 20 points adrift of 11th-placed Dergview.

A 17-year spell in the Northern Ireland Football League ended on 15 August 2019, as the club announced its intention to withdraw from the Premier Intermediate League, with a view to reforming youth structures and resuming senior football activities for the 2020-21 season. It was announced on 29 June 2020 that Lurgan Celtic’s application to join the Mid-Ulster Football League was accepted, and the club played in the MUFL Division 3 for the 2020-21 season, which was suspended due to Covid. The first full season back playing for the senior team was 2021-22 at the end of which saw the team gain promotion to Division 2 and win the John Magee Memorial cup.

Michael Smyth and Donie McCourt agreed to take over the management of the squad upon its return to action and this season has seen a highly competitive league with FC Mindwell and Bessbrook United vying with Lurgan Celtic throughout the season for the promotional spots in the league. FC Mindwell started the season in phenomenal form and won each of their opening 19 league games to open up a healthy lead at the summit of the table.

The Hoops opened their own season with convincing wins over FC United of Lisburn, Damolly, The Dons and Lisburn Youth, before falling to defeat at home to Castlecaulfield. Throughout this time Dwyer Lavery, Aaron Withers, Gary Gilmore and Paddy Toman were regulars on the scoresheet, as the team showed glimpses of the excellent talent and scoring prowess they possessed. Bessbrook and the Hoops were neck and neck with little quarter given, and it was no surprise that the first meeting of the sides saw an entertaining match end level at 2 goals a-piece.

As the season entered post-Christmas fixtures Mindwell looked uncatchable; but things turned in Bessbrooks favour for the second promotional spot when a disappointing draw away to Loughshore, was soon followed by a narrow defeat away to Tollymore United, which seriously dented Celtic’s ambitions. Both games had been played in tough conditions, but the players also failed to turn up in the contests and tough questions needed answering by the squad. With a game looming against unbeaten Mindwell, it was acknowledged that realistically only a win would push the Hoops back into the mix and so it fared out, as the team produced probably one of its best performances of the season to administer a 4-1 defeat to the visitors in devastating fashion.

Michael Haughian and Michael McConville were turning in excellent performances in addition to the attack-minded players in the team, including the January addition Jonny Reynolds; as they soon put a fantastic run together that saw 11 league wins produced on the bounce, coupled with a John Magee Memorial cup run that took them to the final. The league form saw them soon bypass Bessbrook and promotion was secured with a game to spare. It had been a fantastic achievement by the management and playing squad, although a Cup final loomed to round off what would hopefully be a hugely successful season for the Wee Hoops.

The final saw them pitted against Castlecaulfield, who had proved tough opposition in the league, and on Wed 8th June at Holm Park, Armagh, the final was played. Celtic took an early lead courtesy of player of the year Paddy Toman, before Castlecaulfield equalised before halftime. Whilst there were opportunities for Celtic to regain the lead in the contest, the match entered the final quarter with both teams locked level. With thoughts drifting to extra time, young player of the year Michael McConville coolly slotted home to secure the win and John Magee Memorial Cup success for Lurgan Celtic. The team will enjoy the brief break before returning with plans afoot for the new season in MUFL Division 2.

The club cherishes its PAST, works hard in the PRESENT and endeavours to plan for the FUTURE. We are a club that is open and welcome to all; and seek to encompass and represent all members of the community and society in which we operate.

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5-1 1-0 5-0 4-0 4-1 1-4 4-2 2-0 2-1 1-2 1-3 2-0 6-2 DECEMBER Colne Athletic Larkspur Rovers

Baldwin(3), Oliver, Day Robinson

Baldwin(2), Craik(2), Wilson Robinson,Craik,Burrows,Warder Day, Oliver(3)

Own Goal

Baldwin, Burrows, Elliott, Maponga Craik, Baldwin(p) Baldwin(2) Warder Williams Baldwin(2) Burrows(2),T Kearney,O’Kane,Sammut(2)

Hay, Baldwin(2), Warder, Craik Burrows, Baldwin, Sammut Craik, Baldwin, T Kearney, Day FEBRUARY Old Southendian