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League Match: Limavady 43 - 3 Donaghadee (15/04/00)

"DONAGHADEE LOSE THEIR FINAL MATCH OF THE SEASON

Although they pretty comprehensively defeated Limavady in the home encounter a couple of weeks ago, the members of the Donaghadee party who travelled north last Saturday were not confident they could repeat the exercise. In fact with so many key players now unavailable or indisposed, and with the feeling that their opponents had had an off day at the seaside, many thought it looked very ominous for Donaghadee.

Their fears were soon proved valid. Derek McAleese was in as good form on the day as he had been in bad for the earlier match, and the Limavady pack played with a cohesion and determination that suggested that their pride had been well hurt at the Dee. The details of their forty three points are probably best left to be read in their own local paper.

There is an old rugby saying after an overwhelming defeat of, "We were lucky to get nil!" Suffice it to say that Donaghadee thought they did well to get three points on their tally, so few chances were they allowed. This victory put Limavady on 24 league points. Because of their long cup runs Limavady's league programme has slipped behind, but by press time they may have increased the total to 26 if they defeated R.U.C. on Wednesday.

This would put them two points behind Civil Service with two games still to play before 7th May. Success in these will give them the title and promotion to Section 1 of the Qualifying League. Failure would give these rewards to Civil Service.

Donaghadee, of course, can only finish third, and so no longer have an interest, except that they all know which of the two clubs they want to win.

Naturally everyone at Donaghadee hoped for a better achievement earlier in the season. Third is a more than respectable finish, but there is no cigar. Athletes take part in sport in order to win, and leagues are arranged so that the better teams will be promoted and the poorer teams demoted. But it must be said that if Manchester United win the English Premier Football League this season as they look like doing, it does not mean that Leeds, Arsenal, Chelsea et al are poor sides.

By the same token Donaghadee are a good side in their sport and at their present level. Some people made very critical remarks last season because they felt Donaghadee had under-achieved. In fact they too finished third - one place behind Limavady. The section winners, Lisburn, tore though the higher league this year to finish a very creditable second in it. Limavady, depending on the next couple of weeks may repeat that. There is nothing to stop Donaghadee doing it the following year.

Donaghadee played their full 16 games and lost 5 of them. Two they virtually threw away, two were lost on tight decisions and last week's was well-deserved. It is hard to win a league. Playing well is only part of it. You must avoid serious injuries in the squad, occasionally get the bounce of the ball when you need it, get the rub of the decisions and keep the team singing from the same hymnsheet - not just in a big game, but every week for sixteen hard league matches.

Donaghadee 2000 were inconsistent enough to lose the few matches they did. But they were good enough to beat Bangor, Ards and Limavady once each this season, and all of them handsomely. It does not take a genius to recognise that what they need to develop is consistency. How that is accomplished is for the players and coaches to decide during the summer and early season. New players, revitalised older players, more input from these players, more attention to the club's supporting teams, more regular attention at training by more players, a good, well-balanced fixture list and more volunteer "backstage" workers to allow the "actors" to concentrate on their roles can all help. Of course many of these, if not all, are not new ideas, but it does no harm to set the mind thinking anew about them. Once or twice this season's results have been a little disappointing, but they should not be discouraging.

There is absolutely no reason to end this season on a negative note. Arguably of the nine teams comprising the section for the last three years, Donaghadee are now the best. Next season all they have to do is keep proving it. Summaries of the records of the club's other teams this season will appear soon in this paper."