City of Derry v Portadown
Saturday 14th September
Championship 1 Game 3
Portadown travelled away to Londonderry in what was a very wet and windy day with poor conditions for both teams. Portadown started well by dominating possession and a great break by Andrew Morrison put Portadown deep into city of Derry’s half to allow debutant Tom Neill to finish off the opening try in the corner. Portadown defended very well with City of Derry not be able to crack the defence line. Niall Davidson scored an excellent individual try from Portadown’s half when the ball gets as kicked to him in space. Portadown’s attacking game forced City of Derry to concede a penalty in front of the posts with Brandon Gribben securing 3 points just before half time to leave the score at 0-13 at the break. The start of the second half some poor discipline from Portadown allowed city of Derry to creep back into the game. Portadown responded with Andrew Morrison doing a very skillful out the back off load to John McQuitty to score out wide. Converted by Niall Davison. Andrew Morrison yet again made a break through the middle to execute another out the back off load this time with Drew Flack finishing the try off to secure the bonus point. Converted by Niall Davison. Andrew Morrison was awarded the man of the match award for a superb performance.
Forwards coach Taylor Tweedie had this to say at full time “It was great to get off the mark in the league with a bonus point win against City of Derry after a couple of tough weeks. The boys performed well in tough conditions and showed great spirit to keep pushing for the bonus point try while defending excellently to keep the opposition to zero points. With no match next week we will continue to push standards and try raise the level again.”
