Irvinestown Wanderers 1 Castlederg Utd 1

A goal after 15 minutes from Josh Largo Ellis helped Irvinestown Wanderers to a share of the points against Division Two newcomers Castlederg United, with the visitors hitting back on the stroke of half time through Torigh Nicholas to claim a draw in their first match of the season.

Wanderers’ manager Darren Higginbotham was left to rue several missed chances, but acknowledged that Castlederg provided a tough test for his promotion hopefuls.

“We had the lions share of possession and we created some good chances that we didn’t take,” he reflected.

“We hit the post and had a couple cleared off the line, but at the same time Jerome (Carleton) had to make a few saves. We had chances to get the second goal, and if we had got one of those it could have been different. We didn’t take our chances, and when you are stretching yourself to get the second goal you can leave yourself exposed and there were occasions they tried to catch us on the break.

“We were frustrated not to take three points, but not disappointed at the same time. It could prove to be a good point, and we will take it and move on to the next one.”

Castlederg kicked off looking like a team determined to mark their Division Two debut with a successful performance, but Irvinestown slowly started to gain the upper hand and after a quarter of an hour Largo-Ellis opened their account.

The midfielder picked up possession in midfield and drove forward at the Castlederg defence before firing a shot from the edge of the penalty area that went in off the underside of the crossbar.

It looked as though Wanderers would take that lead into the half time interval, but with the last kick of the opening 45 minutes Castlederg grabbed an equaliser.

Irvinestown continued to threaten at the start of the second half with Ronan Ormsby striking the post with a shot from 20 yards.

The home team also had several goalmouth scrambles but failed to force the ball over the line, with Castlederg goalkeeper Chrissy Catterson making a double save to ensure his team left with a point.