The Dee entertained BHSFP on Saturday at Donaldson Park in the second round of the Gordon West Cup. The Dee knew it would be a difficult fixture as the visitors had won the league encounter a few weeks earlier.

Owen Roberts returned to fill the hooker position and in the backs Matthew Stockton returned from injury to captain the side. A strong wind was blowing down the pitch and the Dee played into it in the first half.

For the first half hour the game was evenly contested with most of the play taking place in the middle of the park. Dee did have the upper hand in the scrums but handling errors brought an end to several promising chances.

Daniel Onstwedder and Matthew Pentland both enjoyed fine runs from their own half but BHSFP managed to keep their line intact. The stalemate was eventually broken with five minutes of the first half to go when Adam McGrath slipped the ball to Chris Hamilton who scampered untouched between the posts. McGrath converted to give the Dee a 7-0 half time lead.

The Dee went further ahead within a couple of minutes of the second half when McGrath converted a penalty after the visitors infringed at a ruck. BHSFP enjoyed most of the possession and territory for the next fifteen minutes and Dee’s defence was called upon on several occasions. On the twenty-minute mark this pressure paid off when, after several hard drives by the forwards, the ball was spun out to the centre who ran in to score. The successful conversion cut the deficit to just three points.

This spurred the Dee into action and both McGrath and Robbie Ingham took advantage of the wind to send the ball deep into the High School’s 22. With 10 minutes to go a chip over the top from Pentland landed in the dead ball area and was gathered by Hamilton for his second try of the day. An excellent conversion from out wide gave the Dee an eight- point cushion.

However, the visitors had not given up and despite one great cover tackle by Robbie Ingham and two big hits by Dylan Robinson the visitors managed to score a converted try. Dee then kept their heads to see out the remaining couple of minutes to book their place in the semi-final.

Several players put their hand up for man-of-the-match this week including the youthful Daniel Onstwedder and the not so youthful Chris Hamiton but this week the award goes to out-half Adam McGrath who kicked well all day off the tee and out of hand.

Back to league action next week when the Dee travel to Cavan for a 1 pm k.o.