Dungannon battle back against Galwegians

DUNGANNON needed to dig deep in order to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat at Stevenson Park on Saturday where Galwegians belied their position near the bottom of the table to give Jonny Gillespie’s men a real scare.

Going into the clash, the fixture would have looked as close to a dead-rubber as you can get in Energia All-Ireland League 2B with Dungannon second in the table and Galwegians second from bottom. But on closer inspection, the visitors aren’t as bad as their position in the standings would suggest, having earned a losing bonus point in every match they have played thus far.

And they suffered the same fate again on Saturday, leading from start to almost finish when a combination of their ill-discipline and an improving Dungannon battled back to secure a five point haul for Gillespie, who was less than impressed by his side’s performance in the first two thirds of the clash.

“They [Galwegians] were pretty down at full-time but they played well and they really challenged us in the first half.

“They deserved their lead, were accurate with the ball and we were a million miles off, we weren’t at the races at all,” he observed.

“So, to come back the way we did in the second half was pleasing but we’ve all agreed that is the one we get and if we play like that again we will lose because I just wasn’t good enough.

“In fairness [to the players] there was a enough good stuff in the final 20 minutes [to get the result] but the first 40 or 50 minutes just wasn’t good enough.”

Galwegians raced out of the blocks with Rob Deacy scoring an unconverted third minute try and while Dungannon responded to take a brief lead when Kyle Gormley dotted down and Toby Gribben added the extras, it was the visitors who ended the half strongest with Rob Holian crossing the whitewash for their second try converted by Steven Mannion.

A 7-12 lead soon became 24 as Galwegians remained on the front-foot in the second half as Gonzola Alvarez and Oisin McKee both scored, while Mannion kicked one conversion before James McMahon responded for Dungannon just after the hour mark and Gribben added the extras.

At that stage, the wheels began to come off the Galwegians challenge with Andrew Sherlock’s yellow card leading to a Dungannon penalty try before Alvarez followed him into the bin.

And even though Mannion knocked over a penalty with eight minutes to go, Dungannon smelt blood and went for the kill.

And they were rewarded five minutes from time when Kyle Gormley crossed the whitewash for Gribben to kick the all-important two points that earned victory for Dungannon.

After watching his side battle back on Saturday, Gillespie knows his side will have to be sharper for the full 80 minutes this coming Thursday night when they travel to City of Armagh for the Ulster Premiership final when they will take on the underdogs role.

“It’s a shot to nothing, which we aren’t taking too far ahead of ourselves. It’s a one off, we’ll not do anything we wouldn’t normally do because it’s a game that we’re very much the underdogs for.

“They are three divisions above us and are going well in that league. They have established themselves as a 1A team and they will go fairly strong as there is the Junior Cup that weekend so it could be a real challenge for us.

“But our season won’t be defined by it and the boys have earned the right to play against them so we’ll do our best and give it a shot.”