Enniskillen’s Gavin Parke is stopped by City Of Derry’s Steven Duffy. (Pic: Glenn McIntyre)
City of Derry 13
Enniskillen 10
To the great disappointment of the large travelling contingent of Enniskillen support, Skins went down 13-10 in the Towns Cup semi-final at Derry last Saturday.
Cup semi-finals are games just to be won in whatever manner achievable and it seemed last Saturday that the home team had a better idea of how to do this. Despite playing into the wind in the first half, Derry spent most of the time in Enniskillen territory and got the boost of an early penalty from their outhalf.
Despite having good set pieces , Skins had trouble generating “go forward” ball as Derry flooded the breakdown areas with their number seven particularly prominent. Skins had an early setback with the loss through injury of Ally Duncan but hard though outhalf Johnston tried, the fast up home defence seemed to prevent quick ball going wide.
Indeed it was the home side who went further ahead with a converted try and at this point Skins left themselves with a lot to do. It says a lot for the Derry discipline that they did not give Skins a shot at goal in the first half.
At the start of the second half a great run by Parke almost brought a score and who knows what might have been. It was Derry however who got the next score, a penalty. In fairness to Skins they upped their game and for the last 20 minutes they dominated possession.
Maguire kicked a penalty and the forwards strove to drive forward at every turn The Derry defence was the equal to this however that and a suicidal error rate from the visitors.Parke eventually scored a converted try towards the end but it was too late and the referee blew his whistle shortly afterwards to leave Derry deserved winners.
All credit to Skins players who never gave up but in truth the home side appeared to have a better gameplan which was the difference in the two sides. It is frustrating for Skins to have lost their third cup semi-final in twelve months. They learned a hard lesson and hopefully this experience will be used by this young team in future matches.