Dee welcomed the PSNI to Donaldson Park on Saturday for a Championship 3 league encounter. Dee had just about sneaked a win at Newforge earlier in the season so they knew that PSNI were a force to be reckoned with.

Only a couple of changes in the Dee line up, Callum Moore coming into the pack to replace the unavailable Phil Eadie. In the backline, an injury to Pete Causby last week meant that the versatile Robbie Ingham moved into scrum-half and Danny McBride started at fullback.

The moist condition of the pitch was not helped by the heavy shower that arrived just before kick-off making handling difficult for both teams. The Dee started sharply and put together some good phases of play with outhalf Adam McGrath getting his backline moving and also putting some probing kicks deep into the PSNI 22.

Whenever the Dee defence were called upon they were able to snuff out any danger, marshalled superbly as usual by captain Matthew Stockton. Indeed, it was Stockton who broke the deadlock halfway through the half. From a solid scrum inside the visitor’s 22 the ball was spun out to McGrath. He popped it to a charging Stockton who sliced through the defence and slid in under the posts. McGrath converted to give the Dee a 7-0 lead.

Five minutes later the Dee doubled their lead when Jody Newell collected a pass from Robbie Ingham and dived over to score. McGrath was successful with the difficult conversion. With five minutes to go in the half the Dee stretched their lead. Newell found a gap in the PSNI defence and then kicked into space. The evergreen Chris Hamilton followed up and kicked the ball towards the goal line and then beat the last defender to the touchdown. Again, McGrath slotted the difficult conversion to give the Dee a 21-0 deserved lead at half-time.

As they turned to face the elements the Dee knew they were in for a more difficult half and so it proved. Ten minutes gone and the PSNI got on the scoresheet when the referee awarded a penalty try after an infringement by the Dee at a 5 metre scrum. This gave the visitors some hope that all was not lost and they tested the Dee defence on several occasions.

Frustrations were beginning to boil over and after an altercation a player from both sides got sentenced to the bin. Dee kept the pressure on with a cameo appearance from Sam Ingham which included an important turnover and a charge down. As the game entered the final quarter the Dee were awarded a penalty just outside the PSNI 22. Dee chose the correct option with McGrath kicking the points to ensure PSNI needed three scores in the last ten minutes.

At this point the Dee were a man short due to several injured players having to leave the field. Things got worse with five minutes to go when a Dee player was shown a red card for foul play and then another went to the bin for an infringement at a ruck. To their credit the 12 remaining players stayed strong and managed to keep the PSNI at bay until the final whistle to leave the final score 24-7.

Several players were contenders for man of the match, Matthew Stockton and Daniel Onstwedder had their usual excellent games and Robbie Ingham played well in his least favourite role at scrumhalf. This week, though, the award goes to Callum Moore who had an excellent game at hooker, playing well in both defence and attack. Next week the Dee face a stern test in Greenisland when they face a strong BHSFP side vying for a play off spot. K.O. 2.30pm.