With perfect weather conditions at Donaldson Park the large crowd welcomed both sides on to the pitch for this appetising opening Qualifying League One match between newly promoted Donaghadee and potential league contenders Portadown. After a tentative start by both sides the Dee’s attempt to offload turnover ball on their own twenty two produced an opportunity for the Portadown hooker Malcolm Allister to score the opening try with their out half Chris Goodland failing to add the points to his conversion attempt. The tension was to be immediately felt in the air with the Dee supporters. How would the team and the players respond? Within minutes the Dee’s Portuguese winger Ricardo Santos put their first points on the board to calm the nerves. Portadown then lost their French centre Oliver Montels with a knee injury with Pete Liggitt coming on as the replacement. Positional changes followed for Portadown with wing forward Dairmuid O’Kane switching to centre. With the Dee forwards starting to assert themselves in all facets of play the first Dee try came when slick passing by centres Bobby Harper and Nigel Barker created space for winger Santos to kick ahead and win the race for a well deserved try. Santos then added the points to put the Dee 10 – 5 in front after sixteen minutes. A further Santos penalty added to the scoreline as the Dee forwards continued to dominate terrority. Their efforts were rewarded when a blindside break from the halfway line involving Dee number 8 Richard Millar and prop Chris Schofield allowed wing forward Chris Hamilton to force his way over for an excellent try. Santos was unable to add the points.
During the build up to this try an attempted tackle on Millar by the Portadown scrumhalf Paul Melville resulted in the player having to leave the pitch with a shoulder injury to be replaced by Malcolm Wilson. Again Portadown were forced into positional changes with their winger Timmy Potter switching to scrum half. Portadown’s number 8 Stuart Lamb then made a surging run only for his support players to be penalised at the breakdown. Further Portadown pressure allowed their out half Goodland to convert a penalty to reduce the Dee lead to 18 – 8. The Dee’s response was immediate as they further increased their lead when from a set scrum on the Portadown ten metre line scrum half Allister Lockhart made a tremendous break to put Santos in for the Dee’s third try with Santos adding the points. With Portadown coming up against a resolute and well organised Dee defence few opportunities were created as Portadown’s Captain Gareth McCoy urged his side forward. With talk of the fourth Dee try and the bonus point being secured before half time the Dee supporters could not believe how dominant their team were. Their reward came after good work by the forwards. From a five metre scrum the Dee forwards shunted Portadown off their own ball to allow number 8 Millar to pick up and power over for the all important fourth try. Santos added the points along with a further penalty to leave the Dee leading by 35 – 8 at half time. Jubilation was evident amongst the large Dee support with the Portadown support in a state of shock. Could the Dee team keep up their level of dominance in the second half playing up the slope? Portadown’s right winger Chris Cousins almost broke away for an intercept try within minutes from his own twenty two only for the Dee’s left winger Rory Garnham to chase him down with a superb tackle just short of the Dee line. Portadown’s back line had once again demonstrated how dangerous they could be when given an opportunity. The Dee’s response to this scare was again immediate when excellent handling by the backs allowed Santos to score his third try along with the conversion to increase the Dee lead to 42 – 8. Dee prop Chris Schofield was unlucky not to add a further try as the bounce of the ball beat him following a strong run. Referee David Coey’s patience ran out with the Dee Captain Bobby Harper for infringements at the breakdown as he sin binned him for ten minutes. Portadown were duly rewarded for their efforts from the resulting penalty as slick passing put winger Chris Cousins in for a well deserved unconverted try. Again the Dee’s response from the kick off was to force Portadown back to their own line. From successive scrums the Portadown eight were shunted back forcing the Portadown back row to infringe and leave referee David Coey with no option but to award a penalty try. Santos added the straightforward conversion. With less than ten minutes to go Portadown’s influential number 8 Stuart Lamb had to leave the pitch.Donaghadee introduced their two replacements Kyle Morrow and Philip McGaughey for the outstanding Davy Thompson and the hard working Gareth Gordon. With the forwards continuing to exert pressure on the Portadown line the seventh and final try came courtesy of Prop Chris Goode with Santos again adding the points to leave the final score at 56 – 13 to a shocked and surprised Dee support. Well done guys. What a performance.
What a league debut for Portuguese winger Ricardo Santos who amassed a grand total of 36 points in his league debut with three tries and converting nine kicks from ten. Keep it up Ricardo. What can one say about the Dee’s performance? The scoreline does tell the story of the game. Portadown never gave up but their large travelling support was shocked and stunned by the Dee performance. Only one match played but it does give the Dee players and supporters hope for the season ahead. Demanding tests will confront the Dee players and coaches in the coming weeks when they play Dromore, Academy and Coleraine. With new additions to the playing squad competition has never been stronger for places. This has been reflected by the large turnouts on training nights. It would be wrong to single out any one player on this occasion as this performance was a squad effort. Keep it up guys.
Teams
Donaghadee 1. Chris Schofield, 2. Gareth Gordon,3. Chris Goode, 4. Kalave Avalitia, 5. Davy Thompson, 6. Richard Martindale, 7. Chris Hamilton, 8. Richard Millar, 9. Allister Lockhart, 10. Paul Blewitt, 11 Rory Garnham, 12. Bobby Harper (Captain), 13 Nigel Barker, 14. Ricardo Santos, 15 Billy Allen. Replacements Kyle Morrow, Philip McGaughey.
Portadown 1. Mark Henderson, 2. Malcolm Allister, 3. Rob McClean, 4. Dean Hardy,5. Willy Graham, 6. Gareth McCoy (Captain), 7 Dairmuid O’Kane,8. Stuart Lamb, 9. Paul Melville, 10. Chris Goodlamd, 11. Timmy Potter, 12. Oliver Montels, 13. Jonny Holden, 14. Chris Cousins, 15. David Whitten. Replacements Malcolm Wilson, Pete Liggitt.
Fixture Saturday 10th September 2011
Donaghadee 1st xv v Dromore 1st xv (Home) k.o. 2.30PM.
The Dee team need your support. So please make the effort to come along and cheer them on. You will be made very welcome at Donaldson Park.
Players from the second and third xv are reminded that their league programmes commence with home fixtures on Saturday the 17th September. Again it is important that the players support their Captains and Team Managers by making that all important effort to attend training nights.
