The Dee travelled to Stormont on Saturday for a league encounter with Civil Service. Yet again there were changes to the Dee’s line up due to both a lengthy injury list and unavailability.

In the forwards Ollie McKee started at hooker with Sam Ingham captaining the team from the back row. Matthew Mingout was at scrum half and John Hoslett made his 1st XV debut on the wing.

The pleasant autumnal conditions were ideal for rugby so the travelling support were looking forward to a free-flowing game. After eight minutes the Dee had Service pinned inside their 22 and an attempted clearance was charged down by Sam Ingham. Adam McGrath gathered the bouncing ball and touched down under the posts. McGrath then converted his own try to give the Dee a 7-0 lead.

The Dee were then forced into positional changes when Chris Connelly had to leave the field due to being knocked out in a collision. Service levelled the scores after 25 minutes when Dee slipped off a couple of tackles and allowed the Service player to score between the uprights to leave an easy conversion.

Dee’s injury jinx continued when Ray Dobson suffered a nasty gash to his forehead and took no further part in the game. In the last 10 minutes of the half both teams missed attempts at goal and a Service player saw yellow after the referee lost his patience with the number of high tackles.

Ten minutes into the second half it was the Dee’s turn to see yellow and Service took advantage of the extra man to score in the corner to give them a 12-7 lead. Minutes later McGrath cut the deficit with a well struck penalty.

Service came roaring back and after several phases of play managed to force their way over for a converted try to extend their lead to 19-10.

With fifteen minutes to go things were looking ominous for the Dee but to their credit they raised their game and worked their way into the Service 22. When they were awarded a penalty Sam Ingham made the sensible decision to go for the posts and McGrath obliged to make the score 19-13 to Service.

As the minutes ticked by the Dee forced their way up field and after several drives by the forwards it was Davy Skipp who eventually managed to score about 15 metres from the touchline. With the Dee needing the conversion for the win everyone held their breath as McGrath cooly bisected the posts with the last kick of the game.

A frustrating game which was rather disjointed throughout with several breaks for injuries and both sides frequently being penalised for indiscretions. This certainly did not help the Dee who will have to perform better in future games if they want to finish as high up the league as possible.

However, there were some good performances with Matthew Mingout just pipping Sam Moore for the man-of-the-match award.