Post-Christmas cracker sees Dungannon come out on top

DUNGANNON and Ballyclare served up a high-scoring post-Christmas cracker at the Cloughan in the Ulster Senior Cup on Saturday as the Tyrone side edged through by 40-35 at the end of a pulsating encounter.

The Stevenson Park men were never behind during the clash and had it not been for a few errors and a lack of concentration at times, they would have had the victory long before it was achieved – right at the death after Ballyclare scored a last minute try to reduce the deficit to five points.

And while pleased to see his side come through the fixture unscathed, Dungannon head coach Johnny Gillespie, who rotated his squad ahead of and during the match, admits his charges will need to be more switched-on this coming Saturday when they travel to Malone in the All-Ireland Leagues.

“Defence was optional!” he joked about Saturday’s cup clash.

“Thankfully we were always a few scores ahead although they scored from the last play of the game and we spoke in the [post game] huddle there about needing to have a desire to defend a little bit better than we did today [Saturday] because we won’t get away with that next week.

“We spoke during the week about how it would be very easy to come up here and lose and blame it on the Senior Cup but we were very respectful of Ballyclare; they knocked out Clogher [Valley] and they are a good team. But we played some really nice stuff in the first half and maybe that allowed us to feel a little more comfortable than it really was.

“We were 21-7 up and in fairness, they kicked the ball a lot and we fluffed our lines a couple of times which gave then easy access back into the game, but that’s an area we can improve on very, very quickly.

“We made some changes, rotated and there were some guys who hadn’t played a whole pile of rugby were involved but we came through it with no glaringly obvious injuries from what was a good Ulster derby in front of a good crowd and everyone enjoyed a high-scoring affair.

“And it was good to get a run out ahead of the AIL resuming next week. I’d rather have that: A game under our belts, than be watching, because Malone will be good next week. We’ll have to be 20 per cent better than we were today to go there and win next week.”

The first 20 minutes of the game were fairly even with Mervyn Brown’s early try being converted by Peter Nelson before Ballyclare responded in kind.

Dungannon then gained a foothold in proceedings and engineered a 21-7 lead courtesy of a James Gamble touchdown, converted by Nelson, and a penalty try.

Unfortunately for the travelling faithful, the home side then responded and they were level by the interval thanks to two converted tries. After the break, Dungannon again hit the front with ex-Ulster back Nelson converting tries scored by Toby Gribben and team captain James McMahon before ‘Clare struck back with another converted try.

The visitors responded well, however, with Sean O’Hagan touching down to bring Dungannon to the 40 point mark but there was still time for the home side to breach the visiting defence yet again and on the stroke of full-time they reduced the arrears to just five points, but the referee’s whistle then sounded to secure the win and progress to the next round for the men from Stevenson Park.