Match report by Geoff Ingham

Donaghadee welcomed Academy to Donaldson Park on Saturday hoping to add to their tally of points in what is proving to be an extremely tight league. The Dee won the away fixture earlier in the season by a single point so they were well aware that they would have to play well to secure victory. Although Paul Johnston, Danny McBride, Matthew Mingout and the never to be forgotten Stephen Adams are still on the injury list there were only a couple of changes from last week’s team with Ali Barnes and Chris Scott swopping places and Morgan McCartney taking a seat on the bench after the returning Ewan McCracken pulled up in the warm-up. The pitch had benefited from the rain free week with only a couple of areas moist underfoot. The Dee kicked off playing up the hill and Academy were the first to register points when they opted for a kick at goal after Dee were penalised at the breakdown. The Dee than came into the game and with ten minutes gone Adam Alexander managed to get over the line after several good phases of play from backs and forwards. Mark Cooper missed the conversion to leave the score 5-3 in the Dee’s favour. A few minutes later Academy’s dominance at scrum time was rewarded with several penalties which allowed them to advance deep into the Dee’s half and eventually they were close enough to the posts to kick a penalty to regain the lead, 6-5. Academy were enjoying the majority of possession at this stage however the Dee’s defence stood firm and critical turnovers by Matthew Stockton and Chris Hamilton eased the pressure. On the half hour an academy lineout was won by Dee and after strong drives by Owen Roberts and Ray Dobson the ball was spun wide through Karl Yellop and Alexander to Chris McGivern on the wing who ran in to score in the corner. Cooper was successful with the difficult conversion to put the Dee into a 12-6 lead. Academy finished the half strongly and in the last few minutes had several scrums inside the Dee’s 22. Eventually they were able to make this pressure pay when their number 8 touched down from the base of a scrum. The conversion was successful and the lead had changed hands yet again with Academy taking the 13-12 lead into half time.

Dee started the second half with increased intensity and quickly regained the lead. Sam Ingham picked up from a scrum and drove forward and Chris Scott and Dobson continued the forward momentum. At the ensuing ruck the ever-alert Ali Barnes spotted a gap in the Academy defence and burst through to score. Cooper again converted to put the Dee into a 19-13 lead. The Dee’s tails were up and 10 minutes later were able to extend their lead with their bonus point try. Cooper sent the strong running Dobson down the blindside and he was stopped just short of the line. The ball was quickly recycled and Kyle Morrow’s lovely offload to Yellop allowed the strong centre to crash over the line. Cooper coolly slotted the conversion and the lead increased to 26-13. If the crowd were now expecting a plethora of tries in the final half-hour they were to be disappointed. Due to a combination of Academy’s determination and Dee’s inability to finish off several scoring opportunities the rest of the game was a close encounter. Academy spent considerable periods in the Dee 22 and only a sound defence, from the likes of Robbie Ingham, Johnny Bell and Alexander, kept them at bay. With 15 minutes remaining Academy did manage to squeeze over in the corner to close the gap to eight points. Dee then had more defending to do as Academy searched for a losing bonus point and it was that man Hamilton again, along with Ali Barnes, who came up with turnovers at critical moments. The last play of the game was an unsuccessful penalty attempt by Academy so the final score was 26-18 to the Dee and 5 more valuable league points in the bag. Lots of players were contenders for man-of-the-match this week including the Belfast triumvirate Messrs Alexander, McGivern and Barnes who all got on the scoresheet, but the award this week goes to the evergreen Chris Hamilton who was immense throughout the game in both defence and attack.

After 9 games in a row there is a welcome two-week break for the Dee before they travel to Ballymoney on February 15th.