By 
RUSSELL Crowe famously yelled ‘are you not entertained’ during Ridley Scott’s epic movie, Gladiator, but on Saturday he could easily have been replaced by James McMahon, Adam Milligan or even Dungannon head coach Johnny Gillespie, after the Stevenson Park men were involved in another thrilling clash at Stevenson Park.
And the answer from the faithful would most certainly be a resounding ‘yes, we’re thoroughly entertained’ with the caveat of ‘could you tone it down a bit for our hearts’ as the Dungannon players once again put their fans and coaching staff through the mill during a come from behind victory over Cashel.
As has been the case on more than one occasion this term, Dungannon did things the hard way, trailing 26-7 before mounting a stunning comeback that saw them run riot in the second half to not only claw their visitors back but edge in front.
And while delighted that his player managed to get the job done on the day to further cement their grip on second place in the Energia All-Ireland League table, which comes with a home play-off clash, Gillespie admits he was far from pleased with his team’s first half efforts.
“It was a game of two halves,” he acknowledged. “We were really sloppy and inaccurate in the first half when our attitude was a disgrace if I’m honest with you. Maybe it came from two weeks off, maybe it came from [Cashel] having more to play for in terms of survival – it’s always easy to motivate yourself when the gun’s to your head – but I was disgusted with our first half performance.
“It does need to be put into context with what was a really complete second half performance, which was far more accurate, disciplined and determined and you could see the belief starting to hit Cashel when we finished really, really strongly.
“So I’m delighted but I don’t want another half-time team talk like that again!”
There was more entertainment from a Cashel perspective than a Dungannon one during that shocking first half when the relegation battlers did a number on Gillespie’s men with tries from Marcel Strydom grabbing a hat-trick of tries which Ben Twomey converted two of before the home side burst into life three minutes from the break when Andrew McGregor scored a try converted by Ben McCaughey.
But almost immediately, Cashel struck back to engineer a 26-7 half-time advantage when Timothy Townsend dotted down and Twomey added the extras.
After the restart, a reinvigorated, focused Dungannon emerged and they began turning the tables on their visitors with Jacob Clarke, James Gamble and Toby Gribben all scoring tries, two of which were converted by McCaughey to draw the sides level before the hour mark.
Dungannon then kicked on, taking the lead for the first time when Mervyn Brown scored and McCaughey knocked over the extras, but Cashel made the final 10 minutes interesting when Alan Flannery scored an unconverted effort to leave just two points between the sides at the death.
And while pleased with his team’s second half performance, Gillespie admits his players need to be better prepared mentally from the off in all matches.
“We can’t give teams a head start like that but that has to come now from the player group,” he added. They need to take that little baby step and get over that, but on the other side there was a lot of individual good stuff, and a second half we can be proud of.
“And do you know what? The nature of that win might just propel us and give us the shot in the arm we need to finish the season really strongly because on paper we’re not as strong as some of the other teams but there’s still enough talent in the team and enough experience in the team.
“But they have a history of coming back late, so they are always in the fight!”
Dungannon travel to Shannon on Saturday when a win will all but guarantee a home promotion play-off semi-final.
