‘Holywood’ ending earns another victory for Strabane

STRABANE continued their bright start to the Ulster Championship Division Three season with a late victory over Holywood at Bradley Way on Saturday of last week.

They went into the game full of confidence after winning their previous two fixtures this season, both also at home, and while it looked for a long time that a third victory would follow, Strabane had to dig deep to earn the points on this occasion.

The home side found themselves two points behind with only two minutes remaining and when William Finlay penalty attempt rebounded off the upright their hopes seemed over. Not so, however as, moments later, they won another penalty, this time straight in front of the posts which he slotted over to claim a thrilling late victory, much to coach, Adrian Sweeney’s delight.

“Things are going really well,” he beamed. “I’m pretty happy with how things are going, The boys are working hard and they are starting to translate some of the things we’re doing at training into matches, so I’m fairly happy.”

Strabane started on the front foot with Jack Graham opening the scoring with a try after some good defence that saw the home side force a knock-on. From there, they moved forward with Kyle Barr off-loading to Graham, who held off the fullback before dotting down under the posts to leave Finlay with an easy conversion.

The home side then added to that with a scrum penalty that Finlay knocked over to make it 10-0 after 20 minutes.
Holywood responded and they capitalised on a couple of Strabane mistakes to score a converted push over try from a lineout and they then doubled their advantage on the stroke of half-time with a score that the home side werer adamant was held up. Unfortunately for the Tyrone men, the referee disagreed and they went into the break four points down.

Spurred on by that frustration, Strabane resumed after the interval with the bit between their teeth and they soon regained the lead when, from a 50-20 kick, Simon McSparron touched down after a lineout maul to make it 15-14.

The game then turned into a war of attrition with neither side keen to give an inch and it was the visitors who struck next with a long-range penalty make it 15-17. But back came Strabane with that late penalty double that sealed the victory for the home side, who know that they will face tougher tasks during the remainder of the season.

“We’ll just take it easy and one game at a time because we have played three home games so far, we still have to go away, starting at Cavan this coming Saturday [today],” Sweeney observed.

“But winning is a good habit and when you get the boys believing in themselves and what we’re doing it gets easier.

“Sometimes the habit of winning is as hard to get out of as losing, so hopefully that is the case for us.”