Accies clinch deserved draw at leaders

OMAGH Accies showed the sort of battling qualities on Saturday that they are going to need if they are to preserve their senior status after they battled back to earn a share of the spoils at Energia All-Ireland League 2C leaders Midleton.

Having lost their last four games against the teams nearest them at the bottom of the table – Bruff and Tullamore – few would have given the Accies much hope of earning anything at high-flying Midleton, but having shown more spark and produced a good performance at home against Bruff a week earlier, Glenn Kyle’s men travelled south with renewed optimism.

And that positivity proved well-founded as Omagh not only fought back from a 15-7 deficit but they very nearly snatched what would have been a deserved win in the end only for Scott Barr’s try to be ruled out when his touchdown was ruled to be in the deadzone.

“We had chances to win it, there were a couple of calls went against us but we kept chipping away,” beamed Accies skipper Matthew Clyde. “The performance last week was good, just a few wee mistakes cost us and this week we had to dig deep when we went two tries down but we fought back and got a draw, which was great.

“It’s massive that we didn’t drop our head, that the boys kept chipping away, that we got into good positions and came back from an early deficit.

“I can’t fault the effort at all. The performance has been there in other games but we have to work on cutting out the wee errors and the results will come.

“The performance, like last week, wasn’t far away but we didn’t get the result, so it was nice to come away with something this week. Most people, on paper, would have written us off from getting anything from here, but we got two points and we move on to the next one.”

The writing appeared to be on the wall early on for Omagh when Midleton charged out of the blocks and scored an early unconverted try, which was soon followed by another, but the visitors proved their mettle by striking back when Reece Braden dotted down and Scott Elliott converted to leave just three points between the sides.

Unfortunately for the Accies, a third Midleton score arrived before the interval, leaving the visitors with what appeared a mountain to climb. But it was a challenge Omagh accepted and after being camped on the home line for an age they eventually crossed when Glenn McKinley barged his way over to make it 15-12.

The Accies continued to press and were unfortunate not to get a third try before, with the last play of the game, Elliott knocked over a penalty to earn Omagh two points that leave them just one point behind Tullamore with six games to go.

There are no AIL games this coming weekend, but Omagh will entertain third-placed Enniscorthy on February 8 before travelling to Ballyclare a week later.