This was the designated tie of the Junior Cup 4th round and it certainly lived up to it’s billing. It was an excellent cup tie played out in testing conditions. The town can look back on the game with a heavy heart however as they were the better side but just couldn’t get the decisive break in front of goal.
A further downside to Castlewellan’s exit was a serious injury to the classy Luke Toner who was taken to hospital after 70 minutes with a broken leg and dislocated ankle. It was a sickening incident following a bad tackle from behind that only earned the culprit a booking. Up to that point Luke had been the best player on the field by a country mile.
The first half was pretty even with clear chances at a premium and credit to both sides for trying and succeeding for the most part to produce some sparkling football. It was always going to take something extra special or a bad mistake to break the deadlock and on 35 minutes it was the latter that produced the only goal of the game. The town’s defence misjudged a high ball in the wind and a poor defensive header fell at the feet of Ardoyne’s centre forward who finished in style. Almost immediately Trainor brought the best out of the visiting keeper when his flick from a Travers cross was parried by the keeper and no one was there to follow up.
Castlewellan playing with the wind in the second period upped the ante and dominated most of the possession but the Belfast team defended resolutely. Time and again the locals got in behind their defence but a quality final ball just wasn’t forthcoming. Morgan did have the ball in the net when he swept the ball home from Aidan Burns knock down but a foul was awarded against Burns. The game was held up for a good 10 minutes whilst Luke Toner was being treated and a few minutes later Aidan Burns went down with a hamstring problem, when play resumed the town continued to press and near the end Stevie Trainor headed a decent chance wide whilst Barry Travers cross eluded everyone and had the keeper scrambling to stop the ball just short of the line. With all the pressure, Castlewellan left themselves short at the back and in a breakaway Ardoyne should have closed the game out but contrived to miss an easy chance. For some reason the referee only played 6 minutes injury time when there should have been at least 12 but the way things were going it wasn’t to be the town’s day.
In the final analysis Castlewellan will feel that they should have, at the very least taken the game to extra time, but goals win matches and the Belfast men scored one and defended as if their lives depended on it, no wonder they were jumping for joy at the end.
