Soccer fans getting ready for Yuletide football feast

Soccer fans getting ready for Yuletide football feast

18 December 2013

LOCAL soccer fans are in for a Yuletide feast of festive football over the Christmas period.

The festival of football gets underway this Saturday when the Downpatrick Youth Football League hold their League Cup finals in Dunleath Park.

There will also be a full Amateur League programme on Saturday with the highlight being the first round Clarence Cup tie between Downpatrick FC and Killyleagh YC at Rosconnor Road, Teconnaught.

Fans get a bit of a breather before Christmas Day when Dundela take on Immaculata in the Steel and Sons Cup final at Seaview, Belfast. The main interest for local supporters will centre on Ballygowan’s Stevie Gourley, a former centre half for Killyleagh, who hopes to line out for the men from the East.

Dundela have been fancied in many quarters to win the competition for the 10th time ever since they beat a good Ardglass side 5-0 in the opening round and manager Mark Snodden has assembled a more than talented squad at Wilgar Park that should be good enough to see off the Amateur League Division 1A hopefuls.

Twenty-four hours later on Boxing Day at Meadowvale, Drumaness, holders Castlewellan take on Mourne Rovers in the ClubSport NI Bobby Dalzell Cup final.

Castlewellan are bidding to win the competition for a record fourth year in a row, but Mourne Rovers will not make it easy for the Bann Road outfit and they showed in their semi-final win over Killough that they are now a match for any side.

Castlewellan have a few injury concerns going into the big game, but they have a big squad of players to choose from and no matter what 11 they start with, they will be hard to beat given their record in cup finals.

Joint manager John Burns has led the Town to unrivalled success in the last few years and he is confident of picking up yet even more silverware on Boxing Day.

“It’s hard to explain the reason behind our success. We just play to our strengths and the players’ hunger and never-say-die attitude does the rest,” he told the Down Recorder last night.

“Rovers will definitely make a game of it, but our experience in playing at Meadowvale should give us the edge.

“We beat them 4-2 at home in the league a while back, but neither side was at full strength on that occasion and the cup final will be a different ball game altogether.”

The action switches to Seaview on Friday when Kilmore Rec bid to win the Border Regiment Cup for the first time.

They face Albert Foundry in the showpiece final. This is the fifth time that Kilmore have made it through to the decider, but fate has so far conspired against them.

Manager Mark Holland, who looks like missing out on playing after undergoing a hernia operation a few weeks back, is determined to put things right for the Robert Adams Park side and bring the coveted trophy back to Crossgar for the first time,.

However, all he is concentrating on at the minute is Saturday’s league game away to Comber.

“ Preparations for the cup final will start after Saturday’s game, which is a must win for us.

“We played well in Saturday’s 5-3 away win at Nortel, but I was far from happy about some of our defending and told the players after the game what I thought about it in no uncertain terms.

“ Cup finals are all about what happens on the day, but I won’t even consider who is playing until the middle of next week. We have several injury worries with Jack Larkin, Peter Casey, Peter Telford, Sean Bell and Karl Lewis all on the treatment table.

“I am confident that we can win the cup for the first time and then get back down to winning the league title, that’s our real target.”