By Jonathan Brown
AN 85th-minute winner from Colm Flanagan sent Castlewellan Forest into the 2025 Bobby Dalzell final after a tight semi-final encounter with Killough on Friday night. Matthew Carvill had initially given Forest the lead from the penalty spot in the 34th minute, and they held out until the 71st minute when Jack McLaughlin grabbed a Killough equaliser. With the game seemingly destined for extra-time, a perfect cross in from Carvill was met on the volley by Flanagan to ensure Castlewellan’s first appearance in the Boxing Day showpiece since the 2014/2015 season, when the Town first team defeated Mourne Rovers 5-0 in the final.
28-year-old Jack Murnin, who manages the Forest team alongside Joe O’Neill, said he “couldn’t be happier” with his team’s performance on the night. “We knew what to expect going into the game – it was going to be end-to-end, it’s always an entertaining game between the two of us. Killough scored their equaliser but we just kept going and going and I thought we had the far better chances in the game – we hit two shots just over the bar, one from Colm (Flanagan) went just wide of the post in the second half. We held out well and got the job done. Resilient is the word I would use. It was a brilliant performance and I think we deserved to win on the night, so I couldn’t be happier.”
What made the result even more impressive was the fact Forest were missing regular starters Barry Travers, Danny McKay, and Ryan Morgan, and Murnin says his players worked “tirelessly” on the night to get the result. “The boys that played were excellent and the team worked tirelessly on the night, so that’s all you can really ask for.”
Murnin was particularly pleased with the performance from teenage keeper Cormac Watson, adding: “Cormac in goals has had a really good game. We have Rory Burns, one of the best keepers in the county, and we played Cormac – he was absolutely fantastic.” The co-manager described one of the key tactical battles that helped his side on their way to a 2-1 win in Crossgar. “We knew the dangermen were Jack and Ben (McLaughlin), their two wingers, so we put Ciarnan (Stratton) and Shane Kearney on them to man-mark them, and they were excellent, they barely gave them a sniff all game.”
It was a great weekend all-round for the Bann Road outfit, with the first team recording a 3-1 win over Bloomfield on Saturday, a result that lifts them up to second place in the Amateur League Division 1C table. The weekend was topped off with the club’s Christmas night out on Saturday past, and now the Forest players and management will have their eyes on Friday night’s second semi-final between Drumaness Mills Reserves and Downpatrick at Robert Adams Park, to see who they face in the 26th of December showdown.
“The firsts made the effort to come out and support us on Friday night, so we made the effort to come and support them on Saturday, and then we had our Christmas night out afterwards with the whole squad in Maginn’s, which was a great occasion. So we’ll see where we go from here, we have a Boxing Day final to look forward to now,” Murnin said.
To read the digital edition, download the Mourne Observer app – for apple click here – for android click here
