Match report by Geoff Ingham

Donaghadee travelled to Gibson Park on Saturday to take on Malone 2s in a Conference League game. As usual the teamsheet showed several changes from the previous week with Davy Skipp, Kyle Morrow and Chris Scott starting in the forwards and Paul Johnston and Johnny Bell coming into the backline. The bench was comprised of Mark Cooper, returning after a ten-week layoff due to injury, and Chris Good, coming out of retirement yet again, providing the necessary front row cover. The Dee kicked off with a strong wind blowing across the pitch and they enjoyed the most of the possession in the first five minutes. Unfortunately, due to losing their first two lines outs, they were not able to make any impression on the scoreline. Malone slowly began to get the upper hand, however, due to some excellent defence by both forwards and backs the Dee managed to keep their line intact for the first quarter of the game. The only area where Malone really had superiority was in the scrum and this proved crucial when they were awarded a 5 metre scrum in the 20th minute and managed to push the Dee pack over their own line for the Malone No.8 to touchdown for the opening score. The conversion was unsuccessful to leave the score at 5-0 to Malone. To their credit the Dee came back into the game at this point and some good drives by Sam Ingham, Stephen Adams and Ewan McCracken set up opportunities that saw Matthew Stockton, Adam Alexander and Robbie Ingham all make inroads into the Malone half. After Malone conceded several penalties the referee finally lost patience and gave a team yellow to the Malone winger. The Dee immediately took advantage of the numerical difference when flanker Chris Scott crashed through a couple of tackles and managed to get over the line to level the scores. Five minutes later the Malone pack again showed their muscle in the scrum when they scored their second pushover try after the Dee were unable to clear their lines. The conversion was successful this time to give Malone a 12-5 lead. Just before half time Stockton was shown a yellow card for a high tackle on the Malone winger so Dee knew they would be up against it as the second half began. This was to prove the case as Malone immediately pressurised the Dee line and, despite good tackles from Robbie Ingham and Jonny Gamble managed to score in the corner. Scrum-half Paul Johnston sustained a nasty looking shoulder injury at this point and had to be replaced. Five minutes later Dee picked up their second yellow when the referee decided that Davy Skipp had infringed too many times at scrum time so Chris Scott had to come off as well to let Chris Good play in the front row. These disruptions did not help the Dee’s cause and 10 minutes later Malone scored their bonus point try when the Malone No8 crashed over to score. The kick was converted to take the score to 24-5. With Malone now assured of maximum points and the Dee not wanting anymore injuries the referee brought the game to a slightly premature end. The Dee now have four Kukri Championship league fixtures in a row starting with an away fixture on Saturday at Academy at 2.30pm.