By 
A SLOW start at Mullaghmeen ultimately cost Omagh Accies dearly during their Ulster Championship 1 derby clash against Enniskillen on Saturday.
The home side raced out of the blocks, scoring three tries, two of which were converted, to engineer a 19-0 lead which left Stewart McCain’s men staring into the abyss.
And while Omagh did galvanise themselves after that poor opening spell, all they could muster in attack was an unconverted touchdown from Scott Ballantine to leave them empty handed at full-time.
“I think, those couple of scores at the start meant they had the scoreboard pressure then at 14-0 and then 19-0 up, which left it a tough climb against a really tough team,” observed Accies skipper Matthew Clyde.
“It was a wee bit disappointing but it was a bad start from us in terms of defence so we’ll have to get a look at the video and see where we’re going wrong.”
After that disappointing opening half of the first period, Omagh matched their title-chasing hosts for the remainder of the game and, had they been more clinical in attack, the outcome could have been much closer.
“There were opportunities there and there were times that we should have been getting points out of the pressure and in the second half as well, I thought we were unlucky a few times, being five metres out, putting them under a lot of pressure and they were giving away a lot of penalties but we weren’t able to be clinical enough,” Clyde added.
But those opportunities were not taken and the Accies skipper knows his side will need to be on the money from the first whistle to the last when they host the Skins tomorrow (Saturday).
“We have to review and get back at it next week for the last game of the year. Hopefully there will be a big crowd down supporting us,” he said.
“It would be good to finish the year on a high to take some momentum into 2026. We had a good win against Bangor last week so it was disappointing not to back it up this week but the slow start probably affected us. There wasn’t much in it, the rest of the game.
“But it’s one of those things, you have to be on the money all the time, especially against a team like that.”
