North London Tara notched their first league point of the season today with a hard fought draw against All Saints Celtic. JP Ryan's third strike of the season and Paul Conlon's second looked to have given Tara the victory after being a goal behind at half-time but a magnificent volley late on for Celtic evened the scores. We thought we'd won it so one or two were disappointed not to but given the pressure we were under at times a draw was a fair result. It's nice to get off the mark in points terms but what pleased me most was the commitment and quality of our performance, especially in the second half, against a team of very talented footballers. Fair play to everyone involved.

I made a couple of changes following last weeks nadir at Highgate with Stephen O'Carroll making his first start of the season, Gav stepping back into central defence and Kieran The Beast Kelly returning to the starting XI alongside Deco and Larry in centre midfield. I expected a strong response and I think you produced one, enjoying the better of the first few minutes and forcing a number of corners without managing to threaten the keeper. A tall and well organised side, All Saints saw off the challenge and put us under some real pressure. Rizbo was lucky to stay in the pitch having brought down All Saints former B****way striker on the edge of the box, and their high defensive line was designed to pen us in. It worked well as we fell into the trap of over-hitting through balls into the space behind them, and being caught off-side with frightening regularity. Despite conceding first I was pleased with our performance and hopeful that things would improve.

Gavins injury following an assured performance forced further changes with stand-in skipper Noel stepping back into defence, JP going up top and Dublin Darren coming on wide left. We looked far more threatening going forward. JP's tendency to take a touch and hold the ball up gives the rest of you the crucial time required to get up in support, and when the ball comes back to the midfield we have 2 or 3 attackers in position to receive the ball and beat the offside. Darren made an excellent contribution on the left flank, assisting Paul defensively and acting as real outlet going forward. His final ball can be erratic but one or two crosses were superb. (For whatever reason we looked less to O'Carroll on the right in front of Sean, and I think we need to develop and vary the distribution a bit on that score) Having forced one defensive clearance to come crashing off the bar we bossed the game and equalised when JP ran onto Dec's perfectly weighted pass to round the keeper and score. Credit also to Kieran Kelly, he has the skill to match his phenomenal strength and teed Dec up nicely to begin the move. Paul Conlon then took advantage of a poor goalkeeping clearance to lash home from about 35 yards and put us in front and with JP hitting the post we could have put the three points in the bag. Saints were in no mood to fold however and came back into the game. With Noel in his element in the back line, balling out the ref, the oppo and even his own men, I mistakenly thought we could ride the storm. I really feel we need someone with Noels presence in front of Rizza, and I thought he was superb in this position.

With the sun shining and in magnificent surroundings that took many a man home to Kerry I defy anyone to say they did not enjoy this game. I certainly did. 8/10. Onwards and upwards lads.