It's showtime

It's showtime

17 April 2024

CASTLEWELLAN Town will contest the biggest game in the club’s history tonight as they square off against Newtownabbey outfit St Mary’s in the final of the Toals Junior Shield.

The action kicks off at 7.45pm at the Blanchflower Stadium in Belfast and hopes are high that the Town can finally get their hands on the honours after falling short at every other previous attempt.

“It was always a main goal to get far in this competition but we have finally gotten to this stage and one more big push is required,” said Castlewellan skipper Conall Corrigan.

“Growing up around this club it seemed as if the competition was a distant dream to win, but as I got older the senior team gradually took steps towards the latter stages on a consistent basis, especially over the last decade.”

However, standing in Castlewellan’s way is a St Mary’s team which will be no pushover.

Having gained promotion to Division 2A alongside each other last year – with both going undefeated in their respective campaigns – ironically these finalists are yet to meet one another this season.

“We still have to play St Mary’s twice in the league after this final,” said Conall. 

“Judging by last year they are a very good team, both strong and hard to deal with. I suspect they still have the same core of players, but we don’t know whether they have made any new additions, and if so, what they bring to the table.

“However, we are just focussed on our own camp, which is in great spirits,” he continued.

“We inflicted a heavy defeat on St Teresa’s last Thursday, which was great payback after they knocked us out of the Cochrane Corry Cup.

“We did draw at the weekend though, so that was slightly frustrating as we wanted to go into the final on the back of a win.”

Although John Young’s Castlewellan men had a fairly lukewarm reaction to Saturday’s draw, there was concern expressed at the potential injury of striker Rhys Clarke, who limped off at the weekend with issues owing to his hamstring.

Physiotherapy has since been administered to Rhys, who netted in the 2-0 semi-final victory over Taughmonagh YM, but question marks remain over whether he will be in the starting line-up tonight.

This was a most unwelcome occurrence for the Town, who are already without the services of Ruairi Croskery – due to being cup tied – and Karol Jarosinski, who sustained an injury which has saw him sidelined for the last month.

“Ruairi, Karol and Rhys are our regular attacking force, so it’s incredibly unlucky that we could be without all three,” said Conall.

“We are most hopeful for Rhys, but would be lucky to get any minutes out of Karol. Obviously Ruairi is a certain no.

“But, we have Ryan McCullagh, who has proven time and time again that he is an absolute workhorse. He’s strong, good in the air and can finish a ball well. We seen that in the semi-final when he opened the scoring.”

He added: “Not to mention the likes of Jason Croskery, Chris Cope, Eoin Travers and Cormac Barr, there is plenty of lads there who can grab us a goal and do the business.”

On a personal level, Conall will be hoping to add Junior Shield honours on the back of his brother Caolan’s achievements, who won the NFU Mutual Harry Clarke Cup at the beginning of the month with Castlewellan Forest, which is the club’s second team.

“It would be great to add to the club’s success this season,” said Conall.

“We know the whole town is behind us, their support will help drive us on just like it did with the seconds in their respective final.

“All of us want to put on a show for the fans and hopefully that’s what we will do tonight.”