Castletown triumph in extra-time drama
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CASTLETOWN made it a season to remember with a dramatic Steven Cup final win.
Having already secured promotion as champions to Division One and reached the final of the Colin MacLeod Memorial Cup, the green-and-whites saw off a determined High Ormlie Hotspur with a 3-2 win after extra time to clinch their second trophy of the year.
Chris Sutherland gave them a first-half lead only for Hotspur to level after the interval through Andrew Mackay.
Ryan Forbes restored Castletown’s lead and, going into injury time, that looked like being the winning goal before John Barclay’s last-gasp strike to send the game into overtime.
With a penalty shootout on the horizon, Sutherland broke clear and scored the winner with what was the last kick of the game.
A delighted Castletown coach James Robertson said: “First and foremost, all credit to High Ormlie Hotspur who fought us all the way.
“I was not surprised at how tough they made it for us as I work with some of their players during my coaching duties with Wick Academy under-17s.
“It was a really good game. Some neutrals on the sidelines were saying to me that was as good a game as they’ve seen all season.
“To be honest, we should have been out of sight by half-time but High Ormlie came right back at us and took us to extra time right at the end.
“But we did the same to them late on in extra time when Chris broke through to score at the death.
“We’ve had a great season but promotion was the main aim. We’ve got to be more competitive next season as stuff that we got away with against some of the Division Two sides will be punished by a Division One team.
“We showed during our Colin MacLeod Memorial Cup run that on our day we can compete with sides from Division One.
"Next year, we will need to do that on a consistent basis.”
