Castlewellan surprised a few people by beating holders Woodvale 1-0 last night’s Semi-Final of the Cochrane & Corry Cup, Jason Croskery scoring the all important goal 15 mins from time.
Woodvale were the dominant team in the early stages with lightning breaks against the Castlewellan rearguard who were struggling to get to grips with them, but once a few changes in positions were made Castlewellan began to deal with what the city men were offering. After this initial stage, Castlewellan grew into the game and began putting pressure on the Woodvale defence by moving the ball wide at every opportunity and forcing a series of corners. The Town were having plenty of possession now and were probing, trying to get the all important first goal but nothing clear cut materialised with a few half chances going to waste. It wasn’t only Castlewellan going forward now, Woodvale were trying to turn the Castlewellan defence with long balls over the top only to be foiled by a well organised back five. As half-time approached the game was finally balanced but fair play to both teams they pushed hard to break the deadlock but unfortunately for the spectators though the breakthrough proved elusive.
Following the half-time break, both teams came out really refreshed and determined to give it a go, meaty tackles were being made, and exchanges weren’t for the faint hearted, a typical cup encounter. The game was going from end to end with both teams having chances but a mixture of good defending, good goalkeeping and poor finishing from both teams meant the game was still scoreless approaching the final quarter. With both teams tiring, chances became more frequent, management teams began to utilise their benches trying to get the winner and it came with 15 mins to go when a cross was flicked on by Steven Trainor in nipped Jason Croskery to finished to the net sending the large Castlewellan contingent wild.
Fair play to Woodvale, they almost hit back immediately when their No 10 cut in from the left wing, danced past 2 defenders and struck a curling shot only to see his effort rebound off a post to safety. Colm Flanagan was proving to be a good outlet for Castlewellan now as he was able to carry the ball down the right wing and take some pressure off the Castlewellan rearguard. In injury time Woodvale had a great chance to equalise but their flashed by the far post and anything further they threw at Castlewellan was easily mopped up by the back four and goalkeeper Burns who held out. As the referee blew for full time there was scenes of jubilation as Castlewellan had eventually broken their hoodoo of losing in Junior Competition Semi-Finals. In a match played in great spirit Castlewellan just about deserved the victory with their overall play although the better chances over the whole game fell to Woodvale.
Impossible to pick a man of the match from Rory Burns, Conall Corrigan, Barry Travers, Conor Stratton, Shane McCann, David Gilmore, Jason Croskery, Sean Russell, Donagh Steele, Karol Jaroinski, Steven Trainor, Colm Flanagan, Sean Fitzsimmons, Gareth McKibben, Donal McKibben & Danny Cassidy.
With our participation in the Final now secured attention turns to the next league game, away to 4th Newtownabbey OB on Saturday 1st April, let’s just make sure we get the result we need.
