Donaghadee’s season punctuated by injury and unavailability continued unabated on Saturday in the local derby game against Bangor at Uprichard Park.

The home side dealt with the poor weather conditions better in the first half opening the scoring through full back Chris Morgan before the Dee’s Mark Cooper reduced the deficit to 7-3 through a well taken penalty.

After a chance to bring the game to within one through a Cooper penalty was missed Bangor stretched their lead to 14-3 through Player / Coach Jason Morgan. The turning point in the game came when the Dee had a player yellow carded for an adjudged deliberate knock-on and Bangor’s extra man proved key scoring ties through Chris Morgan and Davy Charles.

The Dee, however, fought back bravely from this set-back and, aided by a power foray by the pack, flanker Matthew Stockton notched up an excellent individual try after evading a few despairing tackles. The conversion was missed leaving the halftime score 24-8 to the hosts.

As the second half began in deteriorating weather conditions some great continuity work by the Dee fifteen saw No. 8 Stephen Adams dive over for an unconverted try in the corner.

At this point there was a flicker of hope in the minds of the Dee faithful but this was extinguished when halfway through the second period Bangor extended their lead with a well taken Ryan Latimer try. A 29-13 scoreline would have been a fair reflection of the game but unfortunately with the Dee playing catch-up rugby their opponents scored two further tries through Mike Weir and Scott Irvine which left the final tally at 41-13 which was maybe slightly flattering on the day and which exhibited no reward for an extremely gutsy performance from the Dee men in the second half.

For the Dee there were stand-out performances from Chris Good, Chris Hamilton, Ally Lockhart, Ryan Irvine, Adams & Stockton but as has been the case for many of his fifteen odd years playing on the 1st XV most plaudits must go Billy Allen who played the entire game with a very painful rib injury sustained in the Harlequins game a couple of weeks ago. In addition substitute Rhys Thompson showed the he may well be a mainstay of the Club for years to come with a strong cameo performance on his appearance to the action midway through the second half.

Another difficult day at the office then for the Dee but Coaches Paul McKenzie and John West will have been proud of the brave performance of their charges in adversity which bodes well for the key league encounters in the run up to Christmas and beyond.

Meanwhile all at the Dee wish Bangor the best of luck in their upcoming Ulster & All Ireland Junior Cup games against Instonians and Enniscorthy respectfully and assure them a warm welcome will await in the return Q1 league fixture at Donaldson Park in February 2015.