The twice postponed Towns Cup Quarter Final got underway at last at Upritchard Park last Saturday after having been moved under competition rules to the home of the side originally drawn away. With Jack Cooke and Matthew Johnston both off their travels, Chris Good & Billy Allen unavailable and Richard Martindale & Stuart Hutchinson absent through injury the Dee had the odds stacked against them from the start only for this to be exacerbated by another key man, Chris Hamilton, starting on the bench due the effects of a chest infection taking its toll during the warm-up. Matthew Martin, Jamie Wilson and Andy McGrugan came into the side for those that were unavailable whilst Matthew Stockton, himself recovering from injury, started in place of Hamilton.

Bangor started strongly and before long were five points to the good when Bradford crossed after sustained pressure on the Dee line with five minutes played. Thereafter Donaghadee took the game to Bangor with aggressive defence turning over ball and controlled phase play causing the home side some difficulties. The excellent Bangor defence remained strong however and they weathered the storm before breaking away down the narrow side for scrum-half Guthrie to score despite what looked like a clear double movement in grounding the ball. The conversion was again spurned and the Dee got in amongst the opposition once again not allowing them to build on their polished attacks by means of stubborn defence in which the back row of Paul Hamilton, Stockton and Conn Crawford were very much to the fore. With locks Martin and Sam Ingham carrying well and Paul Blewitt and skipper Gareth Gordon orchestrating matters the Dee forced play back to the Bangor half and were awarded a penalty after pressure from right wing John Quigg and scum-half Chris Scott which was duly converted by Mark Cooper. Injury meant that Chris Hamilton was forced off the bench and, even though clearly debilitated by illness, soon brought his not inconsiderable influence to bear in the close exchanges. Although the Dee pressed again, principally through the dangerous running of centre Paul Johnston and the willing supporting of elusive fullback Ryan Irvine, the Bangor defence remained intact and the referee blew for halftime with the score 10-3 in favour of the home side.

The second half got off to the worst start imaginable from a Dee perspective when lack of concentration allowed an overturned scrum with Guthrie finding left wing Widdowson who cut through the Dee defence to score from thirty five metres out adding the extras himself. Ten minutes later Widdowson repeated the dose this time dotting the ball down after repeated attacks from the well drilled Bangor pack in offensive mode. The exertions of the first half were now taking their toll on a tiring Dee defence and quick ball spun through the threequarters allowed Bangor centre Gamble to breach the Dee defence to touch down and bring the score to 29-3 in Bangor’s favour. Despite their best efforts the Dee defence now had a ragged appearance and Bangor took advantage of the fact that both Johnston and Irvine had had to leave the field with injuries to score three further tries through Bradford, Charles and Widdowson to the leave the full time score 48-3.

A disappointing result then for Donaghadee but, viewed in context, one of the youngest Dee sides to take the field in recent years availed themselves well in trying circumstances and those who played on despite illness and injury, as ever, proved themselves to be a great credit to the Club against opposition who are currently one on the best sides in the province. This was a steep learning curve for youngsters such as Crawford, Gareth Deering, Ingham, Tommy Scullion, Andy McGrugan and Quigg but it will undoubtedly stand them in good stead in the weeks to come as the Dee return to their league programme.