Omagh coach frustated by derby defeat to Dungannon

Omagh Accies 12
Dungannon 19

FRUSTRATED Omagh Accies coach Glen Kyle says some of his players “need to take a long hard look at themselves” following this Ulster Premiership Two derby defeat to neighbours Dungannon at the Thomas Mellon Playing Fields on Saturday.

While Kyle is using the Senior League to experiement by giving game time to a lot of his squad players, he said there was no excuse for Saturday’s defeat to Omagh’s county rivals on home soil.

The no-nonsense Accies coach felt his team had ample opportunity to claim a comeback victory after going 19-7 down in the second half although it was yet another poor defensive performance that is irking him most.

After Andrew McGregor had opened the scoring with an unconverted try for the visitors Omagh hit back with a try and conversion by Joshua Kyle.

However a James Gamble score, converted by Jordan McIlwaine, had Dungannon back in front by the interval.

A touchdown by second row Stephen Todd stretched the visitors’ advantage further in the second half before Mervyn Edgar crashed over to leave a score between the sides. Omagh had a number try-scoring opportunities in the final quarter but they failed to finish off some promising attacks.

All in all it was a extremely frustrating afternoon for Kyle who didn’t hold back in his criticism of some of his players.

“It was a very disappointing day at the office,” he said.

“I have been giving players the opportunity in the Senior League and have been making five and six changes every week but there is no doubt some of them let themselves down.

“Our defensive frailties were exposed again with Dungannon coming up to our home pitch and scoring 19 points.

“The fact is we are beating ourselves, We had so much opportunity in the first half but we knocked on, we made mistakes, we got turned over five, 10 metres from the line. All we needed was a couple of more passes, a couple of more phases and we would have been in under the sticks.

“Despite playing badly we could have at least got a draw out of Saturday when we had two two-on-ones and we failed to make the final pass. We did the same against Rainey.

“The boys need to take a good hard look at themselves, they are beating themselves. We decided we would use the Ulster Senior League as our friendlies, I don’t know if that was right or wrong.

“I said to the players before the game that this was an opportunity and take it but 100% some of them didn’t take it. In truth, there are a lot of bad points that I am seeing now and while it was disappointing to lose at home, I need my best team out on October 3rd for the All Ireland game against Bruff.

“We’re maybe taking some pain now before having my best side to go there. I’m quickly realising who is capable and who is not.”

While Omagh’s head coach has much to ponder, Dungannon would at this point appear to be in a much better place having backed up an opening day victory over Belfast Harlequins with the win at Coneywarren.

Coach John Gillespie missed the game due to his wife giving birth to twins two days earlier but no doubt news of the win in Omagh would have have been the cherry on top of the cake.

Team manager Tim Smith was satisfied with the result but felt his side left “a number of scores out there”.

“We had quite a few line breaks in the first half which we didn’t convert,” he said.

“ Late in the second half we had a four-on-one overlap and we got pushed into touched. It could have been a lot more comfortable.

“We weren’t clinical enough and when we did put a few phases together we showed what we could do.”

Dungannon also had two players yellow carded, Matthew Montgomery in the first half and McGregor in the second.

This weekend Dungannon host Instonians on Friday night (8pm) while Omagh entertain Belfast Harlequins the following day.