Battling performance and all to play for

Against Ballyvea the Town went out knowing that a win was imperative and set about the task at hand with some excellent football. They kept their shape well and stretched the home team at every opportunity. It wasn’t for the faint hearted and exchanges were feisty to say the least. It’s fair to say though that despite one skirmish which yielded three bookings the referee kept a good hold on proceedings. Castlewellan took the lead on 41 minutes when following a quick counter attack Donagh Steele’s pass was perfectly weighted for Stevie Trainor to run onto and he expertly slipped the ball past Main and into the net.

The second period saw Castlewellan again have the lion’s share of possession and they almost extended their lead after 53 minutes when Trainor’s corner was only partially cleared and McArdle’s follow up crashed off the crossbar to safety. Two minutes later they came mighty close again when  Russell’s through ball again found Trainor who brushed off his marker but Johnny Main made a top class save to keep his side in the game. At this point Ballyvea dug deep and had a fifteen minute spell where they should have equalised at the very least. Firstly Mark Burden found himself with the ball 8 yards from goal after a hopeful cross had evaded everyone but he fluffed the chance by clipping the ball wide with only Watson to beat. Shortly after this with Ballyvea smelling blood Mark McConnell saw an effort from range go narrowly past. Both sides utilised their substitutes as the unremitting pace of the game took it’s toll. Once again Trainor found himself right through and although Main again made the stop Stevie followed up to slot home but the referee adjudged a foul had been committed and disallowed the goal. With 80 minutes on the clock tension mounted when following Ballyvea’s best move of the game a perfect right wing cross from Thompson was met powerfully by Burden but yet again his accuracy was found wanting and his header clipped the upright as it went past. Castlewellan dug deep and fought like demons for every breaking ball. Dornan who had come on for Trainor saw plenty of the ball and a couple of surging runs had Ballyvea on the back foot. With time almost up Main took a free kick in his own half and launched one deep into Castlewellan’s area, the ball evaded everyone and it looked like Watson would gather easily, he slipped however and the ball flew over him and went agonisingly wide. As if the tension wasn’t bad enough before I thought my boiler was going to blow altogether after that incident!  Try as they might the home team couldn’t break down their old foes and the town were happy to keep possession, run down the clock and record a vital win. It was an excellent game of football between two very committed sides.

It’s maybe unfair to pick out anyone for special praise as everybody in a green jersey did their team proud but I have to say that Conor Stratton was immense at the back for the Town and Stevie Trainor was dangerous in attack while Nial Toner had his best game of the season in the middle but as I say everyone should be proud of their contribution, these are the sort of games you want to be involved in and prove that it’s not that easy to win the Newcastle League as some people would contend. So it’s onwards to Tuesday night where we entertain Strangford in our penultimate game, LETS FOCUS LADS.