Junior Shield fifth round
Castlewellan 3 Shore Wanderers 1

By David Hutchman

CASTLEWELLAN Town are through to the quarter-finals of the Junior Shield after what can only be described as an uncomfortable victory over Antrim side Shore Wanderers.

Despite playing well below their best, the locals still ground out the result and can thank their back four of Travers, Stratton, McArdle and Kelly who were outstanding in a nerve jangling final 15 minutes.

The Town, as has been the case in recent weeks, got off to the best possible start, going two up early on. Colm Flanagan netted after three minutes, although the Shore keeper wouldn’t want to see a replay, and seven minutes later Sean Russell doubled their advantage after some sublime work by Aidan Burns.

Wanderers were no bad team and they redoubled their efforts in a bid to stem the tide but found the Town in no mood to relinquish their lead. Play got bogged down into a midfield battle for supremacy where the giant Shore midfielder had a titanic battle with Dean Anderson (no midget himself) and the referee had a job keeping a lid on things as the tackling intensified.

On 32 minutes Aidan Burns almost put the game to bed but his 25 yard free kick clipped the bar with the keeper beaten. Shortly afterwards Dean Anderson met Conal Corrigan’s long throw but the visiting keeper made a remarkable reflex save to tip his header over.

Although Mickey Watson in goals had very little to deal with in the first period due to the excellence of his back four, nobody was under the illusion that the game was won.

The second period started in similar vein with Castlewellan creating most of the chances and they really should have wrapped it up when twice Flanagan missed when well placed and Toner shot narrowly wide after being set up by Travers.

One got the impression that these misses could come back to haunt Castlewellan as Wanderers still looked dangerous on the counter attack. The inevitable happened after 75 minutes when, following a long free kick into the Town’s area, the ball seemed destined for Watson’s hands but on the soft ground it didn’t bounce up and skidded agonisingly through Mickey’s legs and into the net.

Clearly boosted by this, the visitors smelled blood and came forward in numbers but found Castlewellan’s defence difficult to break down, although they went very close to equalising from distance on a couple of occasions.

With six minutes to go Shore did eventually get in behind the Town’s previously watertight line and when the ball was pulled back it seemed certain that an inrushing forward would bury it in net but Barry Travers came from nowhere to block what would have been a certain goal. Moments later though the game was over. Corrigan’s cross went over everyone’s head but Shane Mooney retrieved the situation and picked out Anderson with a superb cross and big Dean buried a header into the top corner.

In the final analysis the Town clearly deserved to win but they shouldn’t have been under so much pressure. Certainly no one was blaming Mickey Watson who has nothing to prove to anyone. The fact remains that the game should have been over long before that incident and if they are to progress the Town will have to finish a higher percentage of chances. True they were missing the McKibben brothers and Stevie Trainor but the boys that came in did a great job and with some big matches coming up it’s getting difficult to tell what Castlewellan’s best line up is!