Castlewellan building momentum

Castlewellan's Kevin Duffin

CASTLEWELLAN boss Liam Hardy is delighted with his team’s performance this season, despite the fact that they failed to win their last two games.

Hardy’s team are in third position in the league, one point behind Burren and three behind Kilcoo, at the midway stage of the season.

The St Malachy’s club can also boast that they are the only team that have beaten Kilcoo in division one this year, but since that game they have lost to Ballyholland, and drew with league strugglers Downpatrick. That hasn’t concerned their manager too much though.

“We are delighted because we are only back up in division one,” said Hardy.
“They have really adapted well to the first division. Though we know that Kilcoo and Burren are the benchmark.
“We should have won our last two matches though, we just kicked too many wides.”

They didn’t make that mistake in the Championship, when they beat Loughinisland by 0-13 to 0-3, however the downside to that game was they lost Fintan McGreevy to injury.

Hardy managed the team when they were relegated out of Division One back in 2010. But he led them to promotion last year, with considerable ease, and they have already proven that that one year in division two has not adversely affected the side.

“We have a lot of players who have plenty of experience of playing in this division. We have brought in a few minors as well. Most boys have enough experience and they know what to expect,” said Hardy.

The full story is in the current issue of Gaelic Life, published on Thursday July 5. Buy your copy now in your local newsagent, or you can purchase the online version – for only 90p – by clicking here