By 
OMAGH Accies have secured a place in next season’s All-Ireland Junior Cup after they produced a stunning second half performance to thump one of their top four rivals, Dromore, at Thomas Mellon Playing Fields.
Their 50-19 victory on Saturday means Stewart McCain’s men are now assured of a top four finish in Ulster Championship 1 and with that comes a place in the prestigious All-Ireland Junior Cup next year.
An anticipated tight tussle got underway as expected on Saturday afternoon with the lead changing hands on a couple of occasions until early in the second half.
Matthew Eccles’ try, converted by Scott Elliott, put Omagh into an early lead but Dromore narrowed the gap with an unconverted score before Ryan Mitchell responded in kind to restore the Accies seven point advantage.
But either side of the interval, Dromore scored two converted trys to leave them 12-19 to the good.
That proved to be a false dawn for the County Down men, however, as it seemed to ignite the home side, who ran rampant from that point on.
Fintan Lagan’s try, converted by Elliott, levelled matters before a second unconverted Mitchell try followed and when Simon Creane and Lagan again landed converted scores the Accies were home and hosed.
Final blow
Reece Braden landed the final blow near the end to secure Omagh’s eighth win in a row in all competitions and looking forward to their final league game of the season at Lurgan before a home Towns Cup semi-final with Enniskillen on April 4th when they will be determined to go one better than in the Junior Cup when their near neighbours eliminated them from the same stage of that competition at Mullaghmeen.
“It was a very good second half performance,” two-try scoring winger Mitchell beamed.
“We blew them away at times in the second half. We’re on a real good run, which we now need to keep going.
“That’s the top four secured, so we’ll try to finish as high as we can in the last game and then go at Enniskillen in the Towns Cup and hopefully win a trophy.”
Counterparts
Elsewhere, the Accies’ seconds and fourths teams were also in action on Saturday.
James Kane’s seconds won through to the final of the Crawford Plate after beating their Rainey counterparts 27-19 in Magherafelt thanks to two trys from Glen McKinley and one apiece from David Cummings and the match-winner from Tom Dees, while Oisin Hone kicked two conversions and a penalty.
The fourths, meanwhile, lost out 33-17 at Ballynahinch IV in the semi-final of the Forster Cup.
