Match report by Geoff Ingham

Donaghadee welcomed Omagh 2s to Donaldson Park on Saturday for a Conference League game. Yet again the Dee team sheet showed some changes from the previous week due to a combination of injuries and unavailability. Davy Skipp and young Jacob Clarke came into the front row and Sam Ingham moved from No. 8 to the second row. Chris Connelly and Matthew Mingout played in the centre with Aaron Baillie and Robbie Ingham on the wings. Adam McGrath, another product of the Dee Academy, made his 1st XV debut at fullback. It was obvious to all at the ground that the weather was going to be a huge factor in this game as a strong wind was blowing almost directly down the pitch towards the town, but although the ground was moist, thankfully the rain stayed away for the duration of the match. Dee kicked off with the wind at their backs and after a couple of erroneous kicks that went directly into touch the halfbacks soon got the measure of the wind and kept Omagh pinned inside their half for the first 15 minutes but couldn’t manage to break down the Omagh defence. Omagh themselves then spent some time in the Dee half and crucial turnovers by Paul Hamilton, Matthew Mingout and Sam Ingham relieved the pressure. After 20 minutes the Dee got on the scoresheet when Omagh were struggling to get out of their 22 and centre Chris Connelly intercepted a pass and touched down under the posts. Cooper converted to put the Dee into a 7-0 lead. The Dee continued to use the wind to their advantage and soon found themselves back in the Omagh 22. After a penalty for a high tackle the forwards set up a ruck just short of the line and Callum Montgomery barged his way over to score his first try for the Dee. Cooper was successful again with the conversion to stretch the lead to 14 points. The Dee support knew that more points were needed before half time and the Dee did not disappoint. Dee were awarded a penalty and Cooper found a good touch 10 metres from the goal line. The forwards secured the ball at the line out and set up an excellent driving maul that took them all the way to the line and allowed Davy Skipp to score a well-deserved try. Cooper missed the difficult conversion to leave the half time score 19-0 in the Dee’s favour. As the second half began the Dee knew it would need a huge defensive effort to win this encounter and for the first 20 minutes of the half they kept Omagh at bay. The defensive effort was impressive considering the number of changes in the backline which was further disrupted when Cooper had to leave the field with a knee injury. Eventually the pressure from Omagh paid off and the centre burst through the defensive line to score in the corner. The kick was missed to leave the score at 19-5. Five minutes later Omagh closed the gap further when the No 8 picked up from the back of a scrum and forced his way over. This time the conversion was successful to bring the score to 19-12. With seven minutes of the match to go Omagh scored their third try when the centre broke through to score close to the posts. With the successful conversion the scores were now level at 19 all. Omagh could now smell victory but to the Dee’s credit they defended heroically for the final few minutes to earn a well-deserved draw. There were the usual contenders for man of the match, along with a good debut from Adam McGrath, but the stand out performance of the day came from Matthew Mingout who had an excellent game in the centre. The next league game is away to Lurgan on the 20th November at 2.30pm.