By 
DUNGANNON slumped to their second Energia All-Ireland League 2A defeat of the season when losing 15-7 at Ballymena.
For the first hour of the Ulster derby encounter it was evident that Jonny Gillespie’s men were rusty after a month-long break over the Christmas period which was extended after last week’s postponement of their trip to Eaton Park due to the sub-zero temperatures.
The Braidmen, who had suffered a 30-10 defeat at Stevenson Park in the reverse fixture before the festive frivolities, were sharper from the off on Saturday and by the break they were 12-0 up thanks to tries from Ben Neely and Angus Robinson, while Callum Davidson knocked over a conversion.
Davidson then added a penalty just before the hour mark, leaving Dungannon needing at least three scores and that gap proved too far to bridge as a James Gamble try, converted by Toby Gribben was all they could muster on what was a frustrating day for the Tyrone side.
“It’s been a month since we played so we were a wee bit scrappy,” Gillespie observed. “We looked a wee bit rusty to be fair but we found a bit of momentum in the second half. We just gave ourselves a wee bit too much to do.”
Having had the chance to blow the cobwebs off after their extended Christmas break, Gillespie is hoping his side can hit the ground running this coming Saturday when they host an Old Crescent side who occupy one of the bottom two spots in the table and before they entertain Banbridge a week later in order to solidify their second position in the table ahead of a touch clash at runaway leaders MU Barnhall on February 7th.
“I was disappointed with our execution on the day [in Ballymena] but we have Crescent, Banbridge and Barnhall [next] so if we could land on something like eight to 10 points over that [run of fixtures] it would give us a wee platform to finish the season but they all have something to play for and fight for so we have to make sure we’re a little bit more accurate than we were [on Saturday].”
