Omagh avenged two earlier league defeats against Bangor on Saturday and progressed to the last eight
\nof the Towns Cup with a well deserved 22-8 victory at Thomas Mellon Playing Fields. A fine second half
\nperformance put the Seasiders to the sword and kept up the Accies momentum with 6 wins out of the
\nlast 7 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of our best performances all season\u201d, confirmed a delighted Accies skipper, Mervyn Edgar,
\nbefore adding \u201cwe had shipped eighty odd points in the two previous matches so it was satisfying to
\nhold them to just eight. We put in a great defensive effort, though we did not take our chances in the
\nfirst half but there was only one team in it after the break\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were stung twice this season, were bullied by Bangor\u2019s mauling game so we worked hard at
\ndisrupting it. We also looked at ensuring any ball they got was slow and this allowed us to get into
\nposition defensively and ensured they did not get on the front foot all afternoon\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearing a full strength side, Omagh started strongly on Saturday and put the visitors on the back foot
\nearly on with a series of concerted drives. They threatened the Bangor line on several occasions but a
\ncombination of poor decision making, turnovers, knock on\u2019s and determined defence denied them the
\ntry that they deserved. The experienced Upritchard Park men had enough savvy to hold on and weather
\nthe storm, with a couple of clinical cover tackles denying potential Omagh scores.<\/p>\n
Lee Warnock did the hard work and made a searing break with Alistair Beckett in support on the overlap
\nwith a try begging to be scored. Youthful impetuosity took over, though, with the talented out half
\nopting to go himself, getting isolated and losing possession. This was a clear try scoring opportunity, but
\nhe was not on his own in this respect.<\/p>\n
The early thrusts withheld, Bangor marched down the pitch in one of their rare sojourns into opposition
\nterritory and were awarded a penalty which they duly converted to take the lead. Warnock levelled the
\nscore soon after with a well taken penalty from 35 metres out, though he fell short with another effort.<\/p>\n
Omagh were under pressure in the scrum throughout the half but battled hard to secure their own ball
\nwith Edgar and Andrew Ferguson making the hard yards off the back of the scrum, while the lineout
\nfunctioned sweetly with excellent throwing from Adam Pollock.<\/p>\n
The rolling maul which had served Bangor so well before Christmas was negated by a combination of
\nintelligent defence at the lineout, stout defence in first up tackling and a concerted effort to disrupt he
\noppositions first phase ball<\/p>\n
Half time 3-3<\/p>\n
Playing downfield in the second period, the home side dominated throughout. Stuart McCain kept the
\nball in front of his forwards with several well judged box kicks that pinned Bangor deep while the scrum
\nsettled down with the home side achieving parity then taking a strike against their more illustrious
\nopponents.<\/p>\n
Kyle Alexander opened the scoring for Omagh early in the half. A penalty was kicked to touch with Jonny
\nGiboney securing the resulting lineout. The Accies chose to drive, and though their opponents had the
\nnous to disrupt, wheel and try to come in from the side, the Accies remained patient, communicated
\nwell and eventually they muscled over with Alexander flopping over from close in. The conversion was
\nmissed.<\/p>\n
Stung into action, the Co. Down men responded immediately using their powerful forwards to drive
\ninto the Accies pack. They released their designated ball carriers time and time again in a well executed
\nperiod of phases with Chris Schofield adjudged to have touched down much to the chagrin of the home
\npack who felt that had held the burly prop up off the ground. The conversion hit the post to tie the score
\nat eight points each.<\/p>\n
With the half backs playing a territorial game, the Omagh eight enjoyed seeing the ball kept in front of
\nthem, while the sizeable Bangor pack visibly seemed to fatigue, energizing the busy Omagh eight into
\nupping their game.<\/p>\n
A finely executed move off the base of the scrum which saw Ferguson, McCain and Beckett involved
\nstretched the visitors defence by pulling them out wide, only for Beckett to feed Andy McFarland on a
\ngreat line. The flying winger cut back at full pace and went over the try line untouched in a slick move,
\none of the best of the season. Warnock added the conversion.<\/p>\n
Despite being in control, Omagh knew a converted try would even the contest and so they pushed
\nfor the score to seal the contest. They got it, courtesy of brute power from Ferguson. The mobile
\nNewtownstewart man picked up a bobbling ball at the base of a scrum 10 metres out and ran over
\nthe efforts of the Bangor scrum half to touch down and ensure Omagh got through to the next round.
\nWarnock added the conversion.<\/p>\n
With 10 minutes to go, the visitors redouble their efforts but were well marshalled by a committed
\ndefensive display.<\/p>\n
Overall this was a good display with the missed chances in the first period being compensated for with
\na strong second half performance that suffocated the visitors pack and with the forwards setting the
\nplatform, the Accies won the territorial advantage and ultimately the game.<\/p>\n
This win guarantees Omagh\u2019s name in the hat for the next round where they could face local rivals
\nEnniskillen or Clogher Valley, while near neighbours Dunannon seconds and City of Derry seconds could
\nensure a West-of-the-Bann tie.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no easy games at this stage. A home tie would be good while a derby match, especially in the
\nCup would bring a big crowd\u201d, noted Edgar.<\/p>\n
The Accies face another very tough encounter next week when Ballyclare visit Co. Tyrone. John Sproule,
\nRyan Mitchell, Yonga Taleni, and David Ward along with the injured Richard Smyth ware all unavailable
\nor injured, while Edgar hopes to have Matty Eccles and Neil Browne back in the panel as they aim to
\nkeep their momentum up against the league leaders who beat them comprehensively at the White Hart
\nat the beginning of the season.<\/p>\n
Kick off 2:30pm, all support welcome<\/p>\n
Team: Alistair Beckett, Andy McFarland, Ryan Mitchell, Alan Heaney, Yonga Taleni, Lee Warnock, Stuart
\nMcCain, Kyle Alexander, Adam Pollock, Mark Smyth, John Sproule, Mark Millar, Mervyn Edgar, Mervyn
\nEdgar \u00a9, Jonny Giboney, Andrew Ferguson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Omagh avenged two earlier league defeats against Bangor on Saturday and progressed to the last eight of the Towns Cup with a well deserved 22-8 victory at Thomas Mellon Playing Fields. A fine second half performance put the Seasiders to the sword and kept up the Accies momentum with 6 wins out of the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[401],"tags":[4719,17230,3959],"class_list":["post-41148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-omagh","tag-club","tag-omagh","tag-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41148"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41183,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41148\/revisions\/41183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}