Castlewellan eased their way into the Bobby Dalzell quarter finals with a 3-0 victory over division 1 Ballynagross. The home side dominated the play in the first period but failed to score due to some last ditch defending and good goalkeeping. Toner, Trainor, Flanagan, Keown and Steele all had reasonable chances but time and again they were thwarted.
In the second period Ballynagross came out of the blocks quickly and moved the ball about impressively. Watson did well to gather one effort after 49 minutes but shortly after this Trainor set up Steele and he shot past the ‘gross keeper to put the home side one up somewhat against the run of play. Watson again came to the town’s rescue when he got down smartly at his near post to turn a fierce effort around the post. For all their neat triangles though the town had the measure of pretty much everything that ‘gross could throw at them and with 75 minutes gone the holders went 2 up when Liam McKibben raced onto Keown’s pass rounded the keeper and netted. This took the wind out of Ballynagross and with time almost up Flanagan won a free kick on the edge of the area after being flattened and up stepped Paddy Keown to rifle home a third goal.
All in all the town have to be happy with the win and go on now to entertain Annalong in the quarters this Saturday. Whilst it was a slight improvement from the previous week the lads still aren’t firing on all cylinders. Great to see Liam McKibben back in the fold, he is definitely a class act and took his goal well but the injured Dean Anderson in central midfield is a big loss to us, hopefully he will be back in the not too distant future.
