On a beautiful autumnal afternoon the Dee arrived in Kerr Park for a much awaited top of the table derby clash against fellow unbeaten rivals Holywood. The Dee showed one change to the starting line-up from last week’s victory over PSNI with Matthew Mingout coming in at full-back for Danny McBride.

Donaghadee started exceptionally strongly and dominated early possession immediately threatening the Holywood line. After five minutes a set-piece twenty metres was won and fly-half Mark Cooper released centre Karl Yellop on the crash-ball who drove through the home defence to open the visitors’ account. Although the try remained unconverted the Dee turned over opposition ball and four minutes later Chris Hamilton doubled the lead after Cooper had deftly spun out of a tackle before releasing his ever present flanker. Cooper added the extras and from the restart Donaghadee continued to move the ball from all areas of the pitch with sustained interchange between forwards and backs. On twelve minutes an already tiring Wood defence was broken by the Dee’s impressive left wing Ben Siri who burst through for an unconverted try. Holywood were now finding difficulty in gaining any type of possession whilst the confident Dee side sought to expose the space which was opening up before them. After a period of continuous pressure scrum-half Paul Johnston swapped passes with Cooper before the former released skipper Matthew Stockton in the centre who powered through the middle to score the bonus point try with just under a quarter of the game played. Cooper again converted. This pattern of play continued and on twenty three minutes a fantastic exchange on the right wing between Stockton, Mingout and Robbie Ingham allowed Siri to outpace the home defence to complete his brace. With Cooper adding the conversion the score now stood at 31-0. The previously breath-taking performance by the Dee was now stymied when the heavier Wood forwards began to bring their influence to play and a succession of dangerous attached threatened the Dee line. From one of these melees Holywood scrum-half Charlie Burrowes broke free before being stopped on the twenty two by a combination of Hamilton and Mingout. Unfortunately the referee, somewhat harshly in view of the large Dee support on the side-line, adjudged Hamilton’s tackle to be “high” and the influential No. 7 was yellow carded. This allowed Holywood to come back into the game and Donaghadee were perhaps to reach half-time with score unchanged and after the home team spilled a number of chances – albeit in the face of some stout defending from the visitors.

Four minutes into the second half a Dee attack in the Wood twenty-two broke down and despite what appeared to be two blatant knock-ons the home side’s left wing Lewis tore down the field to open their account with an unconverted try in the corner. The Dee now reverted to “Route One” and from a line-out fifteen metres out the ball was secured before the mauled towards the opposition line and eventually Owen Roberts emerged within the drive to touch down for an unconverted try. On fifty minutes right-wing Ingham combined with brother and No. 8 Sam before putting Mingout away with a superb pass to allow the youngster to score his first competitive try for the Dee 1st XV. A change of kicker in the form of Yellop brought no further success and the try remained unconverted. Two minutes later however Johnston broke the Wood back row and scored an excellent individual try from thirty metres and this time Yellop converted to leave the score at 48-5.
With the Dee now tiring Holywood now came much more into the game via their strong forward pack and some determined running from their backline and threatened to pull back on the Dee lead on various occasions. However, the Dee defence stood firm and Holywood’s revival was rebuffed on a succession of occasions through the hard work of Morgan Macartney, Rab Irwin, Chris Good and Phil Collins in the front row and the ever improving Andy McCracken at lock. Roberts was giving another stellar performance in his new-found position of lock ably supported by Ingham, Hamilton and the abrasive Stephen Adams in the backrow. Davy Kirkpatrick came on the second-half to spell the tiring midfield but Holywood were displaying their mettle and continued to press the Dee with disciplined play from their forwards and free running from their backs aided by the Dee giving away a succession of needless penalties. All through this however, the home side were kept on the back-foot by the Dee’s No. 9 Johnston whose sniping around the fringes led to a number of clean breaks for the mercurial half-back. Sadly none of these came to fruition in the form of points but they served to keep the opposition defence honest at a time when Wood were becoming ever more threatening in their efforts. With ten minutes left Holywood got just reward for their hard work when they went over in the corner from a lineout drive and an unconverted try.

This was to be the final score and the match ended with Donaghadee winning by a margin of 48-10. Coaches Paul Blewitt & Chris Good will have been pleased with the Dee’s performance – especially in the first-half when the display was irresistible – and will look forward to welcoming old friends Civil Service to Donaldson Park next Saturday.

A number of players put their hands up for Man of the Match this week including Adams, McCracken, Siri and Roberts – whose consistent displays in terms of defence and ball carrying over the past three games have been superb – but this week’s accolade must go to Paul Johnston whose display had the opposition on the back-foot all afternoon and the large support on the side-line royally entertained in equal measure.