Forget the scoreline, this game was a lot closer than 6-2 would suggest and near the end if Strangford had held onto their discipline they might have got a result.
The home side were busy early on but Castlewellan soaked up the pressure and took control. Five minutes in and Paddy Keown danced his way past two Strangford midfielders and released Shane Mooney and he finished expertly to the net. Both sides had efforts off target and Keown almost doubled the Town’s lead when he first timed a Russell pass but saw his effort thud off the bar to safety.
The home team started to ruffle a few feathers in the hope of unsettling their visitors and this worked to an extent when they saw a header come off the bar following a Curran corner, the follow up was headed off the line and cleared, however shortly after this BJ Simms (who still has plenty to offer at this level) equalised expertly after being put right through.
The second half continued in similar vein and referee Stitt was lenient in the extreme after some of the exchanges. Both teams had efforts go narrowly off target early on but the homesters went ahead in the 61st minute after a long throw caused panic in the Castlewellan rearguard and was bundled into the net. Four minutes later the Town had a glorious chance to equalise but Dean Anderson blasted over from 6 yards with the goal gaping. You always felt that there was an equaliser in Castlewellan and it duly came on 76 minutes when Kelly’s long diagonal ball from defence caught out the Strangford offside trap and Donagh Steele raced through to slot past the keeper at his near post. The home side were up in arms claiming offside but when Kelly played his pass young Donagh was definitely on side even though when he received the ball he was well beyond Strangfords last man a fact seeming lost on some of the home support! A minute later Castlewellan were ahead with Strangford again trying to play the offside trap, in this instance however it definitely seemed that Russell was in an offside position on receiving the ball out wide, the ref however waved play on and Rusty’s cross was eventually netted by Matthew Stratton (pictured). The home team were still seething after this reverse and tried to get in behind the Town defence but Aidan Kelly kept his men up to their work and with 5 minutes remaining Mooney scored a fourth after a good exchange with Russell. At this point Strangford lost their shape and to a large extent their discipline and Castlewellan picked them off at will adding 2 more goals in the dying seconds through Matt Stratton and Shane Mooney.
All in all it’s three points for Castlewellan even though they were well below par, Strangford were masters of their own downfall to a large extent and should have put the third goal to the back of their minds because they were still well in the game at that stage. The referee certainly didn’t help with a few very strange decisions, an early booking or two might have helped to reduce some very rash challenges and certainly towards the end several players from both sides can count themselves lucky not to have been shown red cards.
So it’s Ballyvea on Tuesday night but it’s unlikely that Nial Toner will be in the line up after he had to come off injured. Hopefully we will have Mickey Watson back in nets, he was sorely missed today and although Barry Travers did well enough in goals making a couple of fine saves he himself was missed out the field.
