St Paul's FC | Football, London | stpaulsceltic.co.uk

Five star performance from the Celtic

Superb second half performance from the Celtic see off Holloway Galaxy.

'A game of two halves'; possibly the most-used cliche in football, but last night it rang true as St Paul's Celtic returned to the summit of Division 3 with a 5-0 thrashing of Holloway Galaxy. In a welcome return to league duty (and a welcome match against someone other than First Capital Connect) Saint Paul's went from one extreme to another, with possibly their worst 45 minutes this season followed by their best.

The instructions pre-game were to come out of the traps quickly but again the Hoops had a stuttering start. Passing was poor, decision making was awful, and the shape of the team was all over the place, allowing Galaxy to frequently launch long balls at their target man, splitting the defence. The Galaxy left winger was allowed far too much space by a disorganised Celtic defence, and only the outstanding goalkeeping of Hamilton, back to his awesome best, stopped Holloway Galaxy from breaching the Celtic goal.

Hamilton Heroics

Two point blank saves by Hamiliton in quick succession, one a superb reaction with his foot, thwarted the Galaxy number 9 and kept the game scoreless, yet Celtic failed to take heed of the early warnings.

Giving the ball away cheaply has cost St Paul's a lot of goals this season and if they're to win any silverwear this season it's something that has to be cut-out. Fortunately the first half ended goalless with the Galaxy 'keeper having enjoyed the easiest 45 minutes of his life.

Motivational

Sometimes half-time team talks can change the course of a game, yet there was no hair-dryer treatment, no motivational speech and no tea-cups or football boots went flying. There was a collective realisation of how poor the first half performance had been and what had to be done to rectify it in the second period. Any neutral spectators would have been forgiven for thinking that St Paul's had made more than their regulation three substitutions at half time such was the transformation in the football from the kick-off.

Passing was crisp and intelligent, tackles were aggressive, and the communication from back to front was excellent. Galaxy looked shell-shocked and unable to cope with the challenge that now lay before them. Coull, Rogan, Molloy and MacCann, along with McBride and McGuckin were now building cleverly from the back, with Lacey pulling the strings in midfield, and it wasn't long before the Holloway goal was breached, and in spectacular fashion. A quick corner from Molloy was drilled to the near post to Coull, who held the ball up before laying off to Rogan just inside the penalty box. Rogan took it first time, lobbing the ball up and over the goalkeeper and three defenders and into the far top corner of the net. It was an exquisite goal, one that Rogan maintains was deliberate, but by accident or design St Paul's were a goal to the good and if Galaxy looked shell-shocked at the beginning of the half, they were now almost completely deflated.

Molloy's direct running and neat interplay with Coull, Rogan and Lacey was tormenting the Galaxy defence, and McBride and McGuckin's overlapping runs were pressing the home side into their own half, unable to build any attacks. When the ball did get into the Celtic half, the central defensive pairing of Beelders and Majid dealt firmly with everything, winning the aerial battle and putting in bone-crunching tackles to keep Holloway at bay. Galaxy conceded corner after corner; Molloy's delivery consistently excellent, and it was from one such delivery that Coull doubled the advantage with his twelfth goal of the season. An in-swinging ball to the back post was bulleted home by Coull, who beat two defenders to head the ball past the helpless 'keeper.

Flood gates open

Dowling replaced the tiring Kennedy on the 60th minute and his calmness and vision were instrumental in the third goal. A lovely diagonal through-ball from the midfielder found Coull who squared across goal for Molloy to smash the ball into the roof of the net. It was an excellent team goal and well deserved, Molloy having run the Galaxy defenders ragged throughout the game.

Dowling and Lacey in the Celtic engine room were now orchestrating every attack from St Paul's and the sub scored his first for the club in the 70th minute after a superb passing move on the left hand side. Playing a one-two with MacCann he cut inside and into the box before placing a beautifully struck left-footed shot into the far corner from 25 yards. Saint Paul's were now on fire and clearly enjoying the football, yet Galaxy hadn't thrown in the towel just yet.

The fresh legs of Chada and debut boy Blair took to the field for McBride and MacCann, Chada with the difficult task of marking Holloway's most dangerous player on the left wing. It was down the left wing that Galaxy got their first chance of the half, the winger beating Chada and driving into the inside left channel and firing a stunning shot of the post and out for a throw in on the opposite side of the pitch. Another break from Galaxy saw a cross ball dealt with by McGuckin, and although the resulting corner kick was well delivered, Hamilton's acrobatic fingertip save again kept the ball from his goal. Hamilton had been outstanding all night and his distribution was also top class; starting many counter attacks with clever throws and pin-point accurate kicking. It was from another clever piece of football that the fifth and final goal of the night came. A throw-in was taken by Coull and his threaded pass found Rogan who beat three defenders before calmly slotting past the 'keeper for his 2nd of the night and 3rd of the season.

Debutante Blair almost capped his first appearance with a goal and chances also fell to Rogan, Molloy and the outstanding Coull, but 5 goals with no reply was a fantastic score line and one which sent St Paul's back to the top of the table.

Everyone performed superbly in the 2nd half, particularly Lacey, Dowling, Molloy, Rogan and McGuckin who were all outstanding. MacCann made a welcome return to the starting line-up, adding natural width to the left wing, and McBride's 2nd half performance helped turn the tide in Celtic's favour with his running and support for the attack. The back two of Majid and Beelders came right onto a game in the second half, not allowing the Galaxy front pair an inch. Coull turned in a first class performance showing he can provide goals as well as score them, but he was just pipped to the man of the match award by Hamilton in the Celtic goal. His heroics in the first half were the foundation that this win was built on and he instilled the confidence in his defenders to keep only St Paul's third clean sheet of the season.