CASTLEWELLAN Town manager Conor Fegan says the Bann Road men have to aim for promotion from Amateur League 1C this year, after finishing just three points short last season.
Fegan’s side made the perfect start to their campaign on Saturday, securing an impressive 3-0 away victory over Grove United in their opening game.
“Promotion is the goal for us this year, no ifs and buts,” he said.
“We finished three points off promotion last season.
“We didn’t expect Woodvale to win the 10 games they had in hand on us. We thought some of the teams they played might have put up a better fight, but it wasn’t in our hands,” Fegan explained.
Belfast side Woodvale were crowned champions last season after winning all 10 of their remaining league games following the 2-2 draw with the Town back in April, while Newtownabbey’s St Mary’s finished second on 61 points.
Fegan believes the Town were unlucky not to go up with 58 points.
“We set a target of 60 points, got 58 and weren’t promoted.
“Historically, that’s a number that gets you promoted from 1C. It even wins you the league in some years.
“It just shows you how good the two teams above us were.”
Castlewellan have spent two seasons in 1C following their 2A title win under John Young in 2023/24, and former Newcastle player Fegan says his players are now ready to mount a push for promotion.
“We’ve changed our style of play in pre-season and all the players have bought in.
“We think we can play a lot more football this year.
“The boys want out of 1C. Not that we think we’re better than it, we just think we’ve got the squad there and that we’ve got a really good group that’s moving in the right direction.
“We can definitely get out of 1C. This is definitely the year that everybody wants out of it.”
The pre-season programme has seen Castlewellan lose 3-2 to Bessbrook, 2-0 to Newcastle Town, 7-3 to Drumaness and 1-0 to Annalong.
However, the Bann Road outfit picked up a 1-1 draw against Amateur League 1B side Ballynahinch Olympic and an impressive 2-0 win over Mid-Ulster League Intermediate B team St Mary’s YC.
“Pre-season has gone well. We’ve had good numbers at training and good results against teams who are in leagues above us.
“We had a bad day at the office against Annalong. We just weren’t at the races, but the boys knew that straight away and we went and played really well against St Mary’s.
“So it’s all moving in the right direction,” the Castlewellan manager said.
There’s been some movement in terms of transfer activity at the Bann Road, with Adam Garland returning to the club from Drumaness Mills and Lee Ward joining from Ballynahinch Olympic, while Shane Kearney and Andrew McCallister have both departed.
“We’ve only lost two players and we’ve replaced them with two quality players.
“Adam looked really sharp in training and Lee has played a few games for us and been superb.
“They’ll be massive players for us in terms of the way we want to play this season.”
Previously head of youth development and U21 manager at Rathfriland Rangers, Fegan is now going into his second season in charge of the Town and says he learnt some important lessons from last season.
“There’s tough away games that I maybe took a bit naively last season. We probably went into every game last season trying to win. Sometimes that doesn’t always work out.
“Now I know what we’re up against. I know what teams we can take a draw against and move on.
“We lost three away games before Christmas and if they’re draws, they’re not bad results.
“It’s three extra points that probably would have seen us over the line.”
