Castlewellan headed to Newtownabbey on Saturday knowing that a point would see them crowned 2C champions.
The Town put the game to bed in the first half with a blistering 25 minute spell leading up to half time, scoring three but in truth it should have been at least twice that.
4th came out strongly and fought tooth and nail for possession but for all their efforts never really troubled goalkeeper Rory Burns. All the clear chances were falling to Castlewellan with Trainor, Jarosinski and Flanagan failing to find the net when well placed. Croskery did find the net on 14 minutes only to have it mysteriously ruled out. Eventually Stevie Trainor put the Town one up in the 17th minute and from then until half time they laid siege to 4th Newtownabbey’s goal. During this period Jason Croskery had two more goals disallowed. Karol Jarosinski had better luck however scoring twice just before half time ably assisted by Flanagan and Corrigan.
4th redoubled their efforts in the second half working very hard all over the pitch to thwart Castlewellan’s attacking options. They had a few chances and will feel they deserved a goal but Stratton and McCann in the centre of defence saw to it that their clean sheet was maintained. After 55 minutes and in the absense of a fire extinguisher the Town brought the increasingly frustrated Croskery off and introduced Fitzsimmons. Despite having less possession in this period most of the chances were being created by Castlewellan with Travers and Jarosinski working well together on the right, but frantic defending and poor finishing saw the score finish 3-0.
In a game played in the right spirit Castlewellan had star performers in Barry Travers and Karol Jarosinski, both teams would agree though that the referee had an interesting interpretation of the rules of football, fortunately this didn’t affect the result.
So after only their second season in the Amateur league Castlewellan find themselves with silverware, promotion and the possibility of more as they take on top 2A side Suffolk in the Cochrane and Corry Cup final at Seaview on May 4th.
