Dungannon survive a late Sker’

A MISSED conversion by Ronan Mulcahy ensured Dungannon held on for victory at Holmpatrick on Saturday where they edged out Skerries by a single point in Energia All-Ireland League 2B.

The victory all but secures second place in the table and a home promotion play-off semi-final, potentially against Clogher Valley, but it may have come at a cost with concerning injuries picked up by key players, captain James McMahon, Sean O’Hagan and Kyle Gormley.

“We had a couple of bad, lengthy injuries, so we ended up with players playing all over the place and they scored with the last play of the game but they missed the kick so we scraped home,” Dungannon head coach, Jonny Gillespie observed.

“[The injuries were to] significant personnel, Sean O’Hagan, James McMahon and Kyle Gormley we lost, two props we lost and a lot of boys were limping towards the end. They just came out with huge physicality, they were buzzing and full of energy and we lost three collisions and injuries because of it, but hopefully they won’t be too serious and we can get them back in a week or two.”

Dungannon were made to work hard for their win and it was the home side who took the lead after only six minutes when Mulcahy knocked over a penalty.

The same player then missed a similar effort on the half hour before Dungannon took control with Ben McCaughey knocking over three points before converting Stephen Todd’s try to give the Stevenson Park men a 10-3 half-time lead.

In the second half, Dungannon started on the front foot with McCaughey converting Sam Montgomery’s try two minutes after the restart, but Skerries responded with a Mulcahy penalty and his conversion of a Sam Deering try to make it 13-17 on the hour mark.

Dungannon kicked on again, however, with Ryan Abernethy dotting down on 64 minutes and McCaughey added the extras to make it 13-24 but yet again Skerries, who could still sneak into the play-offs, refused to lie down and with 10 minutes remaining after Charlie Conroy had been sent to the bin for the visitors, Peter O’Neill scored an unconverted try.

And just when Dungannon were due to return to numerical parity, Brian Walsh crossed for another home try but Skerries were unable to snatch victory at the death when Mulcahy missed the conversion as the Tyrone side breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“We’re bracing ourselves for a home semi [in the play-offs], so anything above that [winning the league] is a bonus,” Gillespie said. “Last year we probably would have lost this game but the boys who came off the bench today, maybe a bit earlier than they thought, did really well.

“It’s going to be a 35 man effort between now and the end of the season to get success.”

Dungannon entertain Sligo on Saturday for their final regular home game of the season.