There was disappointment last Friday evening for the Town when they went down 2-1 to arch rivals Killough. A highly controversial goal in the 8th minute of injury time saw the east down side emerge victorious just as it looked destined for extra time. In truth though Castlewellan have only themselves to blame for the reverse when a litany of very scorable chances went abegging in the first half.
Killough started brightly and put the Town’s defence under a lot of early pressure without seriously testing keeper Watson. After 6 minutes though following a swift right wing raid and cross from Keown, Donagh Steele looked certain to score from a yard out but Mallon in goals somehow managed to smother the effort and a golden chance was lost. 8 minutes later in an almost identical move Steele again found himself with the goal at his mercy but couldn’t find any purchase on his effort and again allowed Stranney standing on the line to rescue Killough. The opening goal came on 18 minutes when Gelston escaped the clutches of McArdle and steered home a deep right wing centre. This woke Castlewellan up and they began to get a better foothold in midfield resulting in some decent openings being created, none were taken however and Paddy Keown must be wondering how Mallon kept out his close range effort following a Sean Russell cross it seemed that the Killough keeper wasn’t going to be beaten but moments later the town got a deserved equaliser when Barry Travers was ‘taken out’ in the penalty area and Paddy Keown converted easily from the spot.
As in the first half Killough came out the stronger and almost regained their lead in the first minute when Gelston again engineered a bit of space to slot past Watson, fortunately for Castlewellan Travers was there to clear the ball to safety. Stevie Trainor blasted over on 55 minutes when he should have done better after being placed by Russell. It was nip and tuck at this stage and Aidan Kelly had to be alert and make a tremendous tackle on the left side of the area to prevent Killough from going ahead. From the resultant corner a Killough forward got his head to the ball and it looped up and landed on the crossbar before going safely behind. The town brought on Dornan and McKibben after 74 minutes and they didn’t wait long to make their presence felt when McKibben sent Dornan scampering through, he was forced wider than he wanted but still managed to get a good shot in which skimmed the upright. The game was held up for around 5 minutes after Travers was hurt following a horrendous tackle from O’Connor. How he wasn’t sent off is anyones guess as he had been warned and then booked in the first period for two more reckless challenges this time on young Corrigan, the ref seemed to bottle it and the Killough midfielder was very lucky to still be on the field. Just when it seemed certain that the game would go to extra time the most controversial incident of the game occured when Steele had the ball down at the Killough corner flag, his Killough marker pulled him back by the shirt and came away with the ball, momentarily the town team stopped fully expecting the referee to give a foul, extraordinarily he didn’t despite having an excellent view and Killough broke quickly down the left, there still seemed a lot for them to do but the Killough midfielder McIlhone sped down the line and produced a dream of a cross which found the head of Gelston 10 yards out, he met the ball with everything but his effort went straight at McArdle standing on the line, to the disbelief of everyone including Gelston the linesman ruled that the ball had crossed the line despite the fact that McArdle had been standing directly on the line. It would have been better for everyone if the ball had hit the back of the net as then nobody would have any doubt, but Castlewellan couldn’t help feeling robbed by officialdom. There was just time for a restart after 8 minutes of injury time giving the town no chance to reply.
In the final analysis Castlewellan have only themselves to blame despite officials decisions as they had some great chances which in a cup final situation have to be taken. Neither side was at their best in a poor game but the town definitely missed Conor Stratton their most consistent player this season as he was sunning himself in Majorca. Too many town men didn’t perform on the night although Donagh Steele was excellent and was only just outshone by Aidan Kelly who had a tremendous game, Killough were best served by goalkeeper Mallon and the ever dangerous Gelston, how one out of those four didn’t get man of the match is a mystery, instead it went to Killough’s Freddie O’Connor who yes had a decent game but shouldn’t have been on the pitch at the end.
So it’s one trophy each for Castlewellan and Killough with the league committee still to decide on the Premier title after Killough put in an appeal against awarding the title to Castlewellan without them having the chance to play out their last game against Annalong. Not a very satisfactory way to end the season and a play off would have been better. I recall several teams in the past few years playing their entire first teams in lower division games towards the end of a season to get the necessary goals to win them league titles etc thereby making a mockery out of the league – hardly in the ‘spirit of sportsmanship’.
Surely after this the league committee have to do away with goal difference altogether and introduce a playoff for teams finishing equal on points and do away with teams bending the rules to suit their own agendas.
Top: Ruairi and Barry try to keep dangerman Gelston quiet
Below: One of the Town successes on Friday night Donagh Steele in action
