Castlewellan missed the opportunity to advance to the Junior Shield quarter finals last Saturday and I’m afraid they only have themselves to blame. They bossed the first half but only had a one goal advantage to show for it. They missed too many scorable chances and at this stage of the competition that can come back to haunt you.
With both teams feeling each others pulse it took ten minutes for the first opening. Corrigan’s long wind assisted throw was flicked on at the near post by Anderson for Liam McKibben to nod home. Moments later Liam skinned the full back and sent over a low hard cross that was begging to be touched home, alas it was missed but the Town were clearly on the front foot. With Castlewellan winning the midfield battle the Portavogie full backs were working overtime and Steele almost extended their lead after 36 minutes when put through by Keown, he was forced wider than he wanted but still got a powerful shot in which was just smothered on the line by the young Rangers goalkeeper who was very impressive on the day. At the other end Mickey Watson was well covered by his defence and was scarcely troubled apart from a few crosses.
Although in front it was far from a comfortable lead and in the second period Portavogie came out with renewed effort. For the first time in the game the Castlewellan defence came under intense scrutiny, and although the back four were dealing with the situation admirably the midfield was drawn back and this had the effect of giving the home team all the more possession. For a 15 minute period Castlewellan hardly got out of their own half, but having said that yet again Watson didn’t have a clear shot to deal with. Portavogie had a goal disallowed for an obvious offside but you got the feeling that an equaliser was on the cards and it duly came on 67 minutes with a carbon copy of the Town’s goal. This reverse woke Castlewellan up and they dug deep as exchanges intensified. With 15 minutes left the Town brought on fresh legs with Donal McKibben and Colm Flanagan entering the fray. This proved effective with both substitutes working extra hard to maintain possession. Chances were at a premium until the 88th minute when following a mazy dribble Liam McKibben set up his brother Donal on the edge of the area his well struck effort was brilliantly parried by the keeper into the path of Paddy Keown, unfortunately he skied the rebound over the bar from 8 yards. On the stroke of full time the Portavogie keeper yet again came to their rescue making yet another magnificent stop to deny Donal McKibben who had engineered a good opportunity inside the area.
Castlewellan brought on the experienced Stevie Trainor at the beginning of extra time. The first period yielded no chances of note with defences well on top and it looked as time wore on that the dreaded shoot out would be the outcome. The second half took on a similar look until with 4 minutes remaining a through ball from Anderson found Trainor as the home defence ran out claiming off side, the referee waved play on and Stevie advanced but not for the first time the home keeper saved the day, although unaware of how much space he had Stevie should probably have tried taking the ball round the keeper but of course things are easier spectating on the sideline.
Out of Castlewellan’s five penalties Liam McKibben and Stevie Trainor scored, Paddy Keown’s effort was well saved, Dean’s kick hit the underside of the bar and came down just the wrong side of the line and Ruiari McArdle’s kick went wildly over leaving Portavogie needing just three scores which they duly dispatched.
Despite scoring 15 and conceding 1 in the competition we are out, it’s not as if we were beaten by the better team but by our own deficiencies in front of goal, not normally a problem for us, However that leaves two more trophies that are there to be won lets do our best to win them.
Action from Portavogie Rangers v Castlewellan Town and below Ruiari tells everyone about his penalty
