Praise from Wick Groats for well-organised Castletown side
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Wick Groats assistant manager Stewart Ross has paid tribute to the organisation and commitment shown by Castletown since their return to the top flight of Caithness amateur football last year.
Groats, the reigning first division champions, ran out 2-0 winners when the teams met at the Upper Bignold Park on Tuesday night but Tom McKenna’s under-strength visitors proved hard to break down.
“Tom sets his teams up well,” Ross acknowledged. “He’s got a very good mix of experienced, hard-working boys and a few good young players and he’s blooding them as well.
“They were short of a few but it’s not as if their commitment dips, it’s not as if their organisation dips or anything like that.
“They keep themselves very well organised – they are a very proud and hard-working team, always difficult. That’s their MO [modus operandi] really, being hard to beat, and they’ve got some good young players.
“I teach a lot of them in Thurso and I know exactly how good they are, so it’s good to see them now starting to get a chance. Josh Sutherland and Owen Bain moved away from Pentland United because they felt they weren’t getting the game time.”
Groats got the opener midway through the first half with a smart finish by Steven Anderson after a shot bounced off the crossbar.
Jonah Martens added the second shortly after the hour mark when he dispossessed keeper Ewan Grant and slotted the ball in from a tight angle.
There was no way back for Castletown from that point.
“Although they had a lot of bodies there, they were carrying a lot of injuries so they probably just ran out of steam a wee bit and the concentration goes,” Ross said.
“Our boys were starting to get frustrated at half-time because we hadn’t scored that second goal. We were trying to tell them they just need to keep doing the right things, keep playing the right way, and eventually it will come – and it did come.”
Castletown manager Tom McKenna said: “Overall we didn’t really test the keeper. We had three 16-year-olds and a 15-year-old on the park.
“We’re struggling for numbers because we have that many players injured at the moment, so we had to just throw them in. But they will learn a lot from that, it’ll do them the world of good.
“All we can do is encourage the lads. They’ve come in and they’ve been brilliant for us. I can’t speak highly enough of them.
“They are four really good young lads and if they keep developing and keep listening they’ll have good careers in the game.
“I thought we had a lot of solid individual performances.”
There were two second division matches on Tuesday, resulting in Acks and Keiss collecting full points.
Acks were 3-1 winners over Halkirk at the Dammies with Marc Keith, an own goal and John Hooker for the home side. Rory Taylor got Halkirk’s goal.
Tony Miller and Oliver Manton were on target for Keiss in their 2-0 victory at Watten.
