‘It’s the result that counts’ – never was that old adage illustrated better than on Friday night when the Town clinched their second treble, one up early on Castlewellan retreated into their shell and fought a superb rearguard action to clinch their 7th Harry Clarke Cup. Ballyvea will no doubt feel aggrieved as they had the majority of the play but failed to turn it into goals due in the main to Castlewellan’s back four being totally unbeatable on the night.
The league champions started off like a house on fire and had their closest rivals chasing shadows for the first 8 minutes, at this point Aidan Burns got onto a probing Anderson pass and turned his marker inside out, once he got the ball onto his left foot big Aidy fairly slammed home from just inside the corner of the penalty area beating Main at his near post. Inexplicably though they retreated into their shell and let Ballyvea come at them, always a dangerous approach and one which they were to regret when after 16 minutes they gave away a needless penalty. Mark Burden stepped up to take the award but Mickey Watson dived low to his right and deflected the ball up and over the bar for a sensational save. Ballyvea had another good shout for a penalty 10 minutes later but their appeals fell on deaf ears. Castlewellan continued to sit very deep with only Liam McKibben and Aidan Burns providing any outlet up front. Another Anderson through ball found McKibben wide on the right and he shot narrowly over, but these forays were becoming more and more rare as the half progressed. Mickey Watson however had only one save of note to make in the half however due to excellent work by the town back line where McArdle (Ruari I think!) was outstanding in the first period.
Castlewellan tried to get into the game more in the second half but were dealt a serious blow on the hour when Talisman Dean Anderson had to retire after pulling his hamstring, worse was to follow however when Aidan Burns pulled up injured also, thankfully there were able deputies in Stevie Trainor and Colm Crilly who performed heroicly. Again though Ballyvea saw far more of the ball but yet again Castlewellan’s back four were impassable. In all honesty it was a poor game but in the end Ballyvea simply ran out of ideas and the cup resides again in Castlewellan.
Barry Travers was awarded man of the match but really it could just as easily have gone to Ruari McArdle, Connor Stratton or Aidan Kelly.
Certainly the town will be relieved to get this one out of the way and as I said it’s the result that counts. I recall the Bobby Dalzell Cup Final of 1989 when we pummelled Ballyvea but couldn’t score and they took the trophy home on penalties so we know how they felt. It has been a season that has gone so much better than any one of us dared to envisage and the awards night next friday will be interesting.
Next year we will look to get off to a better start in the league which for years has been our downfall, fortunately for the past two years we have been able to catch up but it hasn’t always been the case. However the one trophy that remains our primary objective remains the Junior Shield a trophy which has been tantilisingly close on numerous occasions, surely we are due some good luck next season in our quest for the ‘Holy Grail’.
