By Jonathan Brown
PLAYER-MANAGER James Costello has given his assessment of Dromara Village’s season so far.
Following Saturday’s derby win over Kilmore Rec, Dromara are fifth in the Amateur League Premier Division, with 31 points gained from 20 games played.
“I look on it as a very successful season to date, and I’m looking for more improvement before the end of the season comes around”, Costello said.
“We’re going into the dizzy heights of, in the last ten years, this is the highest position the club’s been in in the Premier Division.
“For me, we’ve done really well,” he added.
However, the Bellsbridge outfit have failed to make significant progress in any of the major cup competitions, falling in the early rounds to Crumlin Star in the Steel and Sons Cup, St Mary’s Newtownabbey in the Border Cup, Lisburn Distillery in the Irish Cup, Kilmore Rec in the Clarence Cup and East Belfast in the Intermediate Cup.
“Cups are a luck of the draw scenario sometimes and we haven’t had that luck this year. “We got a couple of tricky draws along the way that fell at poor times for players’ availability and injuries.
“We probably should have done better in the Border Cup against St Mary’s (Newtownabbey), we had a tricky draw in the Clarence Cup away to Kilmore Rec, and we had an injury crisis around that time as well.”
The Villagers haven’t won a major trophy since 2011 when they lifted the Border Cup after defeating Nortel, but the former Rathfriland Rangers player was clear on where his priorities lie.
“I like cups, but the league is my main priority.
“Cups are nice to have and we would have wanted a better cup run, but, ultimately, we’ll be judged on league form at the end of the season.
“The league is your bread and butter and is always a representation of you as a team and as a squad.”
When Costello took over the managerial reins at Bellsbridge back in February 2024, he spoke of wanting to build his team around local players, saying at the time: “My ethos is Dromara is a community club, so Dromara-based players will play for Dromara.”
Now, Costello believes that strategy is coming to fruition, with club stalwarts like Ben Hanna, club captain Philip Kerr, Ben Martin and Nathan Hamilton forming the spine of the team.
In fact, in the recent game against Lisburn Rangers eight out of the 14 players in the Dromara squad were Dromara-based.
“If I make a decision or a put an ethos or strategy in place, I take a lot of pride in holding myself accountable.”
Read more from Dromara Village in the current issue of the Mourne Observer.
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