Donaghadee travelled to Hamilton Park following their heavy defeat at hands of Academy the previous weekend buoyed by the return of number of players from injury and unavailability. Adam Alexander, Ben Beattie, Adam Whiteside and Robbie Ingham added their considerable collective presence to the backline and newcomer Peter Callaghan debuted on the wing with Matthew Mingout moving from the centre to full-back. In the forwards Sam Ingham came into the second row to partner Callum Montgomery. The side were also able to welcome Euan McCracken on to the bench alongside another debutant in the form of Padric Ahearn. Sadly, Mark Cooper and Ally Barnes were unavailable due to injury and illness respectively.

Donaghadee started the game much the stronger of the two sides and after ten minutes of pressure, during which they should maybe have profited further, Whiteside got the away side on the scoreboard with a well take penalty kick. With Robbie Grant, Chris Hamilton and Montgomery dominating in the forward exchanges the Dee pushed further ahead after twenty-eight minutes play when an intricate threequarter movement allowed Mingout to cross in the far-right hand corner, Whiteside adding the difficult extras to produce a 10-0 lead. On what the onlooking support considered to be the stroke of half-time Ards carried strongly through Trevor Devlin and Matthew Bell into the Dee 22 before the ball was moved to Paul Cox who showed great hands to collect and distribute to his supporting team mate to score a converted try under the posts. From the kick-off the Dee quickly had their opponents under pressure and turned over the ball moving it for a backline interchange before Callaghan did exceptionally well to touch down for an unconverted try in the left-hand corner. To the surprise of the large Dee support the game re-started and in the tenth minute of protracted injury time Ards right-wing Ryan Uprichard profited from quick hands from a scrum penalty under to posts to score a Cox converted try in the bottom right-hand corner. This was a double-blow for Donaghadee as not only had their lead been narrowed to 15-14 but Chris Hamilton was yellow-carded as the last man involved in a series of penalty offences.

During the half-time break the Dee support were concerned by their side only turning around with a one-point lead given that their was fresh wind blowing down from Scrabo Tower and this was behind the Ards side’s backs. This, plus the loss of tight-head Jack Chesney to injury and Hamilton to the bin did not augur well for the second period.

As feared Ards dominated the early stages after the break and profited from having the extra man to score a well taken try on the left wing with forty-seven minutes played. Although Cox missed the ensuing conversion his kicking from hand on the back of successive Dee penalty concessions kept play for the most part in the latter’s half for extended periods of second half. Strong running from Ally Lockhart, Paul Hamilton, Sam Ingham & Ray Dobson kept the Dee in the game and the side were unlucky not to return better dividends from incursions prompted by the strong running of the centre pairing of Alexander and Beattie together profiting form Whiteside’s silky distribution from No. 10. The addition of both McCracken and Ahearn to the fray re-energised the Dee whilst Grant and Montgomery both threatened in the red zone but ultimately the away side found great difficulty in breaking down their opponents defence even after Ards had been reduced to fourteen men following the sinbinning of Devlin. In the last ten minutes Ards returned to the attack and Cox missed a penalty on the seventieth minute before being successful with a carbon copy effort only two minutes later. As the eighty-minute mark approached the Dee faithful were consoling themselves with thoughts of a losing bonus point when the game once again entered an extended period on injury time. At this point the Donaghadee side were still harbouring ambitions of a late score to bring the sides level but, as is often the case, were undone trying to play out of their own territory and Ards turned the ball over before crashing over for a final converted score in the sixth minute of injury time to win 29-15.

This was a cruel blow for a Dee side that had shown vast improvement from their previous outing and success will undoubtedly come once they settle down with the benefit of full (or near full) squad availability combined with an improvement in taking away more points when they are in the red zone. Five matches into the league programme is still very early days and we look forward to the side’s talent and hard work reaping their rewards in the weeks to come.

Strong performances in the backs from Alexander, Beattie, Whiteside and Lockhart together with the Hamiltons and Montgomery amongst others up front. Man of the Match however goes to Robbie Grant whose electric offence and defence often proved the difference in turning defence into attack.

Next week the side welcome Randalstown to Donaldson Park when they will be hoping to build on the significant improvement in form shown at Hamilton Park.