Omagh bottom after latest defeat

OMAGH Accies status as a senior club is under serious threat after they suffered their fifth defeat in a row and eighth in their ten Energia All-Ireland League 2C fixtures so far this season to leave them rooted bottom of the table.

Their latest reverse couldn’t have come at a worse time as it was delivered by a Tullamore side, who were bottom of the table, but having now won their first two games of the season – home and away against the Accies – they are now ninth, two points above Glenn Kyle’s men.

The situation is pretty bleak for Omagh, who won their first game of the season at home against Clonmel, but who have only managed a 19-19 draw against Ballyclare since and they know while this coming Saturday’s home clash against third from bottom Bruff isn’t quite make or break just yet, it’s pretty close to that point.

“Everyone knows the position we’re in, it’s not the position we want to be in at all but full focus is on the next game all the time,” Accies skipper Matthew Clyde observed. “Unfortunately this one slipped away from us but we have things to work on in training and hopefully we can kick on for a better result against Bruff.”

Unsurprisingly, Saturday’s clash in Tullamore proved to be something of a tight battle with the home side leading through a penalty before Scott Elliott replied for Omagh, kicking two to make it 3-6 before the home side edged back in front with a converted try.

The Accies again bounced back with a Scott Barr try converted by Elliott to engineer a 10-13 advantage with around 20 minutes remaining but the home side levelled with another penalty before lady luck deserved Omagh completely.

“There’s just fine margins in these games,” Clyde admitted. “At 13-13 we missed a penalty and then we were unlucky that they got a penalty two minutes later that came off the post, off the crossbar and bounced over to make it 16-13 and then, obviously, with them ahead we were looking to score, so all they had to do was keep kicking us down the pitch and play the territory game and then they got another penalty for 19-13.