Dungannon women win pre-Christmas cracker

CHRISTMAS came early for Dungannon ladies on Thursday of last week when then clinched a bonus point win at Enniskillen in their opening Women’s Premiership League Group One clash.

Despite falling behind twice to two converted tries, Dungannon soon took the game by the scruff of the neck and thanks to a brace of tries from both Cheryl Wilson and Laura Saunders and one from Colleen McCance, Conor McElmeel’s charges not only avenged an earlier home defeat to the Fermanagh women, but they went immediately to the top of the table.

Despite being without star winger, Niamh Marley, Dungannon were boosted by the availability of Kim Johnston and player of the match, Lucy Webb, and the head coach feels his side produced a real team effort on the night.

“The girls certainly gave me an early Christmas present,” McElmeel beamed. “I knew it was in us and we had probably the strongest squad we’ve had all season and we played absolutely fantastic, but there’s still more in us.

“We had four or five players missing but I think the reason we played so well is we played as a team rather than leaving it to four or five players to do the lot.”

Another aspect of Dungannon’s play on the night that pleased McElmeel was their much improved discipline. Penalties had blighted their form this year, costing them dearly in previous encounters, so he was delighted that they kept infringements to the minimum on this occasion.

“There wasn’t one high tackle from Dungannon the whole night and I think we got penalised maybe four times for off-side, so everything was as good as it could have been,” he observed.

“Our penalty count had been killing us this season but overall this performance was the one I knew was there and we’ve been waiting for it all season.”

Dungannon face a break in action now until late January when the Group One campaign resumes with an away fixture at Queen’s.