Castletown hit Francis Street for six
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CASTLETOWN bounced back from their cup final heartache by dishing out six of the best to hapless Francis Street Club.
The Back Park side travelled to Upper Bignold still licking their wounds from the 4-0 mauling handed out to them by Staxigoe last weekend.
Such a loss has left teams in a state of shock and by the time they’ve recovered, they’ve lost a handful of league games – not Castletown, though, as they won 6-0 to extend their lead at the top of Cafa Division Two.
James Robertson’s men set about Francis Street with Chris Sutherland leading the way with a superb hat-trick. Also on the mark were Michael Smith, Ryan Forbes and Connor MacIntosh.
And for Robertson, getting back to winning ways has helped the club put their Colin Macleod Memorial Cup misery behind them.
“It is good to be winning again,” he said. “It was always a worry that there might be a bit of a hangover from the cup final – especially when the 4-0 scoreline flattered us.
“However, we worked hard, kept possession well and took our chances when they came. On paper, some might have had this down as a routine win but we were determined not to fall into that way of thinking.
“This is not an easy league and if you go into any game with the wrong attitude, you can find yourself on the end of a bad defeat.
“There was a point in the game when, at 2-0 up, Francis Street had a great chance to pull one back. Had they taken it, things could have been very interesting.
“However, we did what we had to do and well done to Chris with his hat-trick. He’s a good player with a lot of experience and has been a very good signing for us.”
Elsewhere, High Ormlie Hotspur kept up their promotion bid as they came away from FC Retro with a 4-2 win that saw them go third in the league.
Star of the show was 15-year-old Grant Mackenzie, who smashed into the Retro net not one but three free-kicks. Korbyn Cameron completed the scoring for Hotspur, while Retro’s goals came from Tony Miller’s penalty and Jamie Howden.
Grant’s PE teacher at Wick High School, and Hotspur boss, Ewan McElroy was delighted but was quick to play down any talk of promotion.
McElroy said: “I think the two teams above us, Castletown and Wick Thistle, will be fighting it out to see who gets the automatic promotion spot and who goes into the play-off.
“We’ve a squad whose average age is roughly 18 and is largely made up of lads who are either still at school or have recently left.
“As for the win against Retro, Grant took his free kicks really well – especially the third one which really crashed into the back of the net.
“I’m delighted with the boys. However, we were unlucky not to score more as we hit the woodwork a number of times. Our back four was very solid too – which it had to be as Retro were determined to make amends for that 10-0 loss against Wick Thistle and they gave us a few problems at times.”
