The Town made the long journey up to Ballykelly on Saturday for their round 2 Junior Cup game and after a bizarre match they will be wondering how they contrived to lose.
Castlewellan were very lethargic for most of the first period and allowed the home side far too much space in midfield. They paid the price early on when Ballykelly took the lead on 9 minutes, second to the breaking ball in midfield Castlewellan found themselves at sixes and sevens allowing the centre forward through and he cooly lobbed Mickey Watson. Aidan Kelly almost had the teams level shortly after when his effort from range skidded narrowly past. The home team had plenty of possession but didn’t make the most of it in terms of clear cut chances. Dornan almost brought the teams level after 28 minutes but his header from Flanagan’s cross was turned against the post and wide by the home keeper. Trainor brought the best out in the Keeper again shortly afterwards but his stinging shot was expertly tipped over. Ballykelly were still dangerous and their striker saw his effort flash wide when he should have done better. They came closer still when a cross deceived Watson and rebounded to safety off the bar. A second goal seemed inevitable and it came after 36 minutes when a Ballykelly striker was needlessly taken down in the area when he was actually moving away from goal. The penalty award was successfully dispatched and things looked bleak for the town. The game completely changed though shortly before half time when Ballykelly’s number 2 was sent off for a horrific tackle on Conal Corrigan leaving the young midfielder in agony. It was a really bad challenge and unfortunately some of the lads got involved with the culprit leaving Kelly also with a red card. After this incident the Town were a completely different team and came out all guns blazing in the second period. The home team rarely got out of their own half during the 45 minutes and Castlewellan got a goal back 5 minutes in with a great individual effort from Sean Dornan. Steele and McGrady came close in quick succession and it seemed only a matter of time before parity was restored. On 65 minutes the chance seemed to have arrived when Toner put Dornan through, he rounded the keeper but was unceremoniously brought down as he was about to score. Somehow the referee allowed the offender to stay on the field and worse was to follow when McArdle blazed the penalty over the bar. There wasn’t long to wait for another chance when from the kickout Castlewellan regained possession launched another attack and this time Donagh Steele was brought down when about to shoot – another penalty. Amazingly McArdle missed again with the keeper covering himself in glory making a wonderful save. A dangerous two footed challenge had Castlewellan up in arms yet again but the culprit quickly hid and one of the other home players offered himself up for the booking saving his teamate who had already been booked from a red card, clever work on Ballykelly’s part but the referee should have been more aware and no doubt it won’t have gone down well with the assessor who was at the game. At this stage it looked as though it just wasn’t going to be our day and gilt edged chances were spurned by Toner, Steele, Stratton and McArdle over the remaining 20 minutes with Ballykelly very very lucky to be in the next round.
It was a disappointing result and if leading scorer Paddy Keown had been available it would be hard to envisage anything only a Castlewellan win.
We can’t always wait for one of the opposition to upset us before putting in the required effort though but I suppose we shouldn’t be that down as we created enough chances to win 10 matches, it just wasn’t our day!
