Donaghadee made the long trip to the west of the province once again hamstrung by the now familiar injury and unavailability malaise which has marked this current season. With Ryan Irvine, Bill Allen, Chris Hamilton, Stuart Hutchinson, Conn Crawford, Paul Hamilton, Richard Martindale, Gareth Deering and Tommy Scullion, amongst others, not making the trip it was always going to be a hard day at the office for the Dee against an Enniskillen side seeking revenge for a thirty point reversal at Donaldson Park before Christmas and, to compound matters, the Dee side were to lose two key men to injury well before half-time. Adam Torrans, Kyle Morrow, Johnny Stewart, Matthew Martin and Andy Cash came into the side with Alastair Deering and Kyle McGifford making starting debuts & Stephen Cullen and Adam Johnson coming on to the bench.

Skins started strongly and scored their first try within three minutes when fullback Ferguson crossed after some indecision in a Dee defence clearly unfamiliar with each other. The Dee now composed themselves and strong running from scrum-half Paul Johnston and Martin caused some difficulty in the home defence before they broke away and scored a second try through their impressive openside Harte. Once again Donaghadee found some go forward via Johnston, John Quigg & Deering but then suffered a double blow when first talismanic tight head Chris Good and then Johnston both succumbed to knee injuries and were to play no further part in the game. With these two off the pitch the Dee found readjustment difficult and were punished when first Ferguson got his second try and then Skins No. 8 Cadden profited from a Dee scrum that had not before played together to touch down from a pushover to leave the half-time score 20-0 in favour of the Co. Fermanagh men.

Ten minutes into the second half Cadden repeated the dose when the experienced Skins front row made life difficult for their equally inexperienced Dee counterparts before, on sixty minutes the Enniskillen Ulster Junior Jamie Johnston forced his way over after a succession of scrums on the Dee line. To their credit the Dee never took a backward step and attacked when opportunity afforded with Chris Scott, now deputising at scrum-half, and Paul Blewitt orchestrating matters for Mark Cooper, Deering and Martin to make telling inroads into the home defence. Enniskillen held strong however and scored late tries, on the back of catch-up rugby going awry from the Dee perspective and being reduced to fourteen men after lock Sam Ingham has to leave the field, through Lendrum and Ferguson.

It was certainly a difficult day then for Donaghadee but, for those that made the trip, they can hold their head high for a performance not lacking in grit and determination – especially from those who were playing at this level for the first time. Stand out performances from Deering, Martin, Scott and skipper Gareth Gordon will not lessen the side’s disappointment but will, on the other hand, stand them in good stead for the now extremely key six league games that remain before season’s end.