Carson hails Greencastle’s rise to the top ranks

By Niall Gartland

GREENCASTLE won’t forget this one in a hurry; they secured the Division Two title in almost miraculous circumstances last Sunday. The tension was almost unbearable as they waited to hear that league leaders Aghyaran had slipped up against Killeeshil, and their ace attacker Mark Carson reveals the agonising wait to find out that they had leapfrogged Aghyaran to that coveted promotion berth in Tyrone.

“We needed a lot of Lady Luck, put it that way. We knew we had to win our game and keep our house in order but at the same time we were heavily reliant on Killeeshil – they had to win – a draw wasn’t good enough for us, they had to win.

“The odds were stacked against us and to be honest we just completely focused on beating Kildress because they’re one of the top teams in the division, even during our game there was no talk about how the other game’s going.

Carson continued: “When the full-time whistle went, we were delighted, and we also thought ‘right what’s happening?’ We had 15 minutes to wait, at that stage it was the last water-break in the other game and it was level at that stage. We were like ‘Jesus it’s nip and tuck’ here. We said we’d let it play out and see how it goes. The team walked into the dressing room and Colly Tuohey, our goalkeeper, is friendly with a girl from Killeeshil so she was texting him updates.

“It was all a bit nerve-racking so he said ‘frig it’ and rang her, so she said Killeeshil were two points up heading into the last two minutes.

“Colly asked the girl to stay on the phone, he put it on loudspeaker and sat it in the middle of the table in the changing room. Everyone was silent and looking at Twitter updates on their own phones. The girl on the phone was roaring and screaming and we didn’t know if Aghyaran had scored or hit a wide, or if the game was over, and Emmett Bradley, who’s part of our management team, came in and broke the news.

“It was sheer euphoria, it was unbelievable. You couldn’t have written it in a better way. Even sitting together in the bar on Monday, it hadn’t sunk in.”

Carson, who scored an awesome total of 3-19 across their final three league games, also says that the camp was struck by Covid earlier in the year. For a while, their season threatened to unravel, but they hung on and their resilience was rewarded in the end up.

“Lady Luck was on our side, someone must have been looking down on us as we’d a bad old time of it in the middle of the year. A few of us, including myself, got Covid, and the championship went badly which was a tough one to take as we had big plans for doing well.

“It was difficult and we had to play Aghyaran the following week and we slipped up there again. We thought in the space of two weeks, our league season’s over even though we’d gone unbeaten for months.

“But Sean Teague and Jon Lynch just told us to fight to the bitter end and take care of our own business. We won it in 2014 in similar circumstances as Trillick slipped up in the second last round against Brackaville, but it’s that bit more special when it goes right down to the final minute of the final day.

“It was great because none of the supporters left the ground afterwards, they came in and joined the celebrations. It was a very special moment for myself, the players, management and all the people of Greencastle to be honest.”

Division One football won’t be easy, but Carson says they’re determined to give it a good rattle next year.

“It’s been four years since we played in Division One, and Sean said that if we trained unbelievably hard this year, with John Lynch coming in, that we could get back to the top flight. At times it looked like it was going to happen, and possibly we were almost overconfident when we were winning every game. But then to get there finally in the circumstances they did, it was extra special.

“It’s going to be tough for us, especially with the way they’re changing the structures, but we’ve a good young team coming through so we’ll have to work extra hard to nail down our status. We know we’re going to have to step up again.”