FIELD AGAIN 1945

On June 4th 1945 at the Monthly Meeting of the West Tyrone Board, an application was made by Greencastle to enter the Junior League. The application was accepted and Greencastle took the place of Dromore Juniors, who were retiring from the competition. By that stage, Dromore had played two league games and lost both. So with that record, Greencastle played their first league game against Mullaghmore at Omagh on June 10th 1947. That outing resulted in defeat for Greencastle. However 1 week later in the return match at their new pitch, which was in fact Hugh O'Neill's field across the road from our park, sporting the new jerseys, which were Green and White hoops and which remained the same style until the mid-80's, the new team overcame Mullaghmore.

Greencastle had as visitors on Sunday last, the Mullaghmore club who defeated them in the Junior League match at Omagh the previous week.

It was the first match on the home club's new Gaelic Park and it as most encouraging for the homesters to see the magnificent crowd of spectators, which was an indication of the interest and enthusiasm felt by the people of the district at the revival of the national game among the young men of the parish.

Though their debut a week previous wasn't spectacular, the "Babes" in the return match displayed the most marked symptoms of having grown up and proved themselves superior to the visiting team, especially in stamina and staying power, though lacking the fitness and accuracy which will come with a little experience and practice. Greencastle showed a marked improvement in their kicking, which was weak in their first match and many of their previous faults were noticeably eliminated.

The game started with the wind strongly in favour of Mullaghmore who opened the scoring with a point, followed later by a goal and a point from frees from inside the 21-yard line. Greencastle however fought back valiantly and when the half time whistle went, the scores stood - Mullaghmore 3-02 - Greencastle 0-04.

From the very beginning of the second half, Greencastle settled down to a game reminiscent of their league winning team of 1935-36, registering scores with monotonous regularity. Mullaghmore not scoring even one in this half.

The final whistle of a hard and clean fought game left Greencastle the winners with a score of 4-07, Mullaghmore 3-02.

Mr E.V. McCullagh, Greencastle, was a most efficient impartial referee.
A feature of the return of the club to competition was the support and interest within the area. Evidently the club had once again captured the attention of people. The league was now 13-a-side competition and the Greencastle combination of survivors of the 1933-37 era and a group of enthusiastic newcomers began to make an immediate impact winning eight consecutive league games to leave the league looking like this:

In the Junior Championship, Greencastle met Newtownstewart at Gortin and so began a period of intense rivalry between the two clubs. The report of the game gives a picture of a great match between two evenly match teams. The final result was a draw 2 goals 2 pts each. Scorers were: J.A. McCullagh 1 goal, Peter Tracey 1 goal, Myles McCullagh 1 pt, P. McCullagh 1 pt. The replay resulted in a Newtownstewart victoru by 2 goals 5 pts to 1 goal 4 pts. The Greencastle team was: A. McAleer, C. Donnelly, S. Fox, J. Morris, G. Rodgers, E. Fox, P. McCullagh, T. McDermott, P. McCrory, P. Tracey, P. Keenan, J.A. McCullagh, P. McCullagh, F.H. McBride, J. McAleer. Subs - J. Keenan and J. Kirk.

The final league was shown has Greencastle in 3rd place, just 6 points behind leaders Gortin, which as an excellent showing since the club began with a handicap of two defeats incurred by Dromore.