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OMAGH Accies earned three points during their see-saw Ulster Championship One battle with Cooke at Thomas Mellon Playing Fields on Saturday.
The home side went into the clash in confident mood having defeated Dromore in the Junior Cup last eight a week earlier, and while they impressed in attack, defensive frailties once again returned and in the end they had to battle back to earn a decent return in the end.
Allowing Cooke too many opportunities and too much space in the Omagh 22 was the home side’s biggest problem on the day and it meant that even after scoring six tries, the spoils were shared with their Belfast visitors.
“It was a wee bit disappointing,” Accies skipper, Matthew Clyde, acknowledged. “The defence at times wasn’t where we want to be, the discipline at times wasn’t good enough, so it’s a wee bit disappointing. But we did well, we clawed our way back and came away with some points, which is massive. It was a wee bit disappointing, but it could have been worse.
“It was a wee bit disappointing not to back up [the previous week’s defensive effort] because if we’d done that it would have been a different result. But fair play to Cooke, they took their chances well, although we gave them too many entries in the 22, which is something we need to work on.
“We showed in glimpses what we can do, but we need to up it a bit.”
The game swung back and forth throughout with Robbie Sproule’s early converted intercept try putting Omagh ahead 7-5 for the first time before Cooke regained the lead. And while the Accies drew level at 12-12 thanks to Sean Kerr’s score, it was Cooke who led once more as they took a seven point advantage into the second half.
Omagh responded well after the restart with skipper Clyde dotting down for a converted effort but again Cooke extended their lead with a penalty before Kiwi import Atina made it 24-22 to the Accies with a converted try.
Cooke then bounced back themselves with two unconverted efforts to engineer a 24-32 advantage, but once again, Omagh found their groove to finish strongly as Mark Hopton-Brown and Sam Beattie both scored unconverted efforts to salvage a draw for their side.
Omagh will be hoping their attacking prowess remains tomorrow (Saturday) when they entertain Championship Two side, Larne in the Towns Cup, but they know they will need to be much better in defence in the process.
“We’re hoping to get another cup run going. It will be another tough game. I suppose, on paper, we’re favourites, but you have to do the business on the day,” Clyde added.
