Dungannon enjoy derby delight

DUNGANNON returned to winning ways on Saturday when they enjoyed a relatively comfortable 12-22 victory at near neighbours Rainey OB to cement their grip on third place in the Energia All-Ireland 2 B table.

The match was bookended by Rainey ascendancy as they engineered a 23rd minute lead when Jody McMurray crossed the whitewash before Jack Hardy missed a penalty and a conversion.

Dungannon then took charge and by the break they were 5-10 to the good after Ben McCaughey knocked over a penalty and converted Alex Kennedy’s try.

Jonny Gillespie’s men put the result to bed in the opening 30 minutes of the second half as Mervyn Brown and Kyle Gormley both dotted down and McCaughey added the extras to make it 5-22 but Rainey finished as they started with Ross McLaughlin grabbing a try converted by Hardy, who added a late penalty to leave just seven points between the teams in the end.

Having suffered a gut-wrenching one point home defeat to second placed Skerries at Stevenson Park last time out, Dungannon travelled to Magherafelt determined to bounce back and that they did with a 10 point margin of victory. However, as they did last time out, they allowed their opponents some freedom in the closing stages, which is something head coach Jonny Gillespie feels they need to work on going forward this season.

“It was about getting over last week’s disappointment [the one point home defeat to Skerries]. Listen, Skerries did a real job on us. I wouldn’t want to hide from that. They played good rugby and came away with it but we definitely could have managed it better,” he observed.

“First half [against Rainey] was quite quiet from us, second half was a little bit better. I felt we did enough to win the game. We let them back in at the end but it’s an ongoing process for us about how we manage the back end of games.

“There were two or three areas we wanted to work on and I’d say two of the three we showed good improvement, which was really good, and the other will take a bit longer to work through but I’m content that we’re moving in the right direction.”

Dungannon face another local derby this coming Saturday when they entertain Clogher Valley at Stevenson Park where Gillespie acknowledges his side will face a ‘different test’ that they did at Hattrick Park against Rainey.

“It will be a totally different test [against Clogher] but we prepared two different weeks to lead into it so we’re excited for it,” he said.

“We know they will bring huge energy and accuracy in what they do. They are a good rugby team and we’ll have to be at our best to get a result but we are looking forward to it.”