Castlewellan Town Too Strong For Taughmonagh YM In Junior Shield Semi-Final
Castlewwellan Town went to town at the Blanchflower Stadium in Belfast winning through to the final of the Junior Shield.
The Castlewellan supporters received a sterling performance from a side that had two of its key strikers missing on the night. Both Ruairi Croskery and Karol Jarobinski were unavailable.
But that did not matter to John Young’s green army as the whistle blew to start the game. Castlewellan Town went straight into overdrive and for most of the match were the dominant force with Taughmonagh only managing an occasion challenge to the Castlewellan goal area.
In the first minute Rhys Clarke almost scored when he took the ball on a solo run through the Taughmonagh defence and almost managed to squeeze it past keeper Stephen Cairnduff for what would have been a brilliant early goal.
Taughmonagh replied quickly but Eoin Travers made a good intervention killing off the attack. Then Castlwellan’s Rhys McCullagh broke forward and got to the Taughmonagh goal line where defender Bradley White intervened just in time to squash any goal opportunity.
Castlewellan were keeping up the pressure on Taughmonagh and Mattew Stratton launched a good volley on target but it hit a defender and bounced away from the goal for a corner.
The Town started to show off their creative side when Travers passed to Clarke who won another corner. The ball then went to the head of Adam Garland, who received the Player of the Match award, who made a crunching header but was an inch wrong side of the top bar.
For the first ten minutes Taughmonagh could not get near the Castlewellan goal as the back line was virtually could not be broken.
The game settled into what was mostly attacks by Castlewellan for large spells. On 25 minutes Clarke passed to Stratton who launched a volley that was on target but blocked by the keeper. The pressure was definitely on Taughmonagh.
Then on 25 minutes, forward Jake Blair passed to Evan Kennedy who hit a solid volley but Castlewellan keeper Rory Burns handled it well with a fine save, his first real test in the match.
Castlewellan thyen won a free outside the box and Ruairi McArdle tried to bend the ball in to the top of the net. He hit it well but was just over the top bar.
Then eventually after successive attacks, Ryan McCullagh playing his heart received a long pass and broke forward taking on keeper Cairnduff. He side-stepped him and slotted the ball home to open the scoring for Castlwellan in the 31st minute.
Immediatelly Castlewellan got their tails up and pressed even harder and won a throw in. Danny McKay was waiting in the goal mouth and headed cleanly but his effort unluckily hit the top post.
Castlewellan had another good spell attacking and Taughmonagh seemed to have little to fight back with., certainly lacking any real punch up front.
Blair did have a slight opportunity from a Carter Bacon cross but the ball ran to far in front of him. Before half time, Taughmonagh did increase their efforts to try and salvage a half-time draw but Jay Nicholson made a good effort and struck a great hook drive but it was just wide of the back post.
As the whistle blew for half-time, it was Castlewellan who were again pushing for a second goal.
The second half was more of the same with Castlewellan in attack mode.
Rhys Clarke missed a clear chance from a McKay pass when his volley was just over the bar on 48 minutes. It could have been a game changer closing down Taughmonagh for good.
After about 15 minutes in to the second period, keeper Rory Burns had not been tested by Taughmonagh yet.
However, Taughmonagh eventually did get the ball up to the Castlewellan goal but Burns grabbed it confidently.
Gradually Taughmonagh players took on injuries and cramped up and substitutions were made as the game did get a bit more physical.
On 70 minutes, McKay lashed a strike which was again like several other Castlewellan shots, was just over the bar.
Stratton and McCullagh made a good break for the Town but defender Josh McDowell made an excellent clearance close to his goal.
Minutes later Clarke broke through and ran at the goal but Taughmonagh keeper Cairnduff read it and came out closing the angle and blocked the shot.
Ryan McCullagh kept up the pressure up front for Castlewellan and took another volley, just wide of the post. Then it was Clarke turn to hit wide from a corner.
Incredibly the fit Castlewellan side did not let up the pace and kept attacking, but the Taughmonagh side did try and rally with a spell of good possession trying to build an attack.
But that was undone in the 84th minute when Rhys Clarke was aprt of a charge forward and found the ball from a pass from Clarke and rounded the keeper and hit to the middle of the net putting Castlewellan two goals ahead with six minutes to go and the referee allowed five minutes extra time for injuries.
The match ended with a strong performance from Castlewellan on the front foot. They hardly put a foot wrong, played like daemons, and in the end wore down Taughmonagh.
And this was achieved without their two key strikers on hand for the match.
Castlewellan now look forward to the final on Wednesday 14th April between either Ford FC or St Mary’s FC – the semi-final is being played this evening (21st March).
(More photos to follow).
