In Castlewellan’s penultimate league game of the season there was a nice sporting gesture from St Theresa’s who formed a guard of honour for the recently crowned 2C champions.
In a typical end of season game with little only pride at stake the Town found it difficult to get going.With a strong wind and hard ground both sides found control difficult and play was disjointed to say the least. Castlewellan had the better chances to open the scoring but their finishing let them down. They paid the price after 34 minutes when St Theresa’s went ahead very much against the run of play and almost scored again just before half time.
In the second half the home side took the field with a much more competitive attitude and began to play on the ground and get the ball wide, a tactic that has served them well all season. Eventually they equalised in the 51st minute after a goalmouth scramble. The ‘Dubious goals committee’ decided to award the goal to Jason Croskery! 10 minutes later the Town went ahead with the best goal of the game when Karol Jarosinski wriggled past two defenders and blasted home from 20 yards. Steele and Russell were having a battle royale in midfield but as the half progressed they definitely came out on top. Davy Gilmore came on for the last 20 minutes after a few games on the injured list and showed up well. Further goals from Croskery in the 68th and 72nd minutes saw the league champions comfortably ahead and with time running out Jarosinski netted his second.
A good second half performance and with one more league match to go the management may take the opportunity to rest a few players. Hopefully it will give centre half Shane McCann a chance to recover after his injury on Saturday. Best for Castlewellan on the day were Karol Jarosinski and Connor Stratton.
