Dave Gallaher Park saw Letterkenny under 18’s take on Portadown on Saturday 28th February in a contest that would decide whether or not the home side would finish second in the league. Having lost away to Portadown 20-10 in November, Letterkenny knew the second-place spot would not be won easily.

However, it was clear from the kick off that the home side were in finer form, dominating both territory and possession, remaining deep in Portadown’s half for most of the opening. Last resort defence kept Letterkenny out on several occasions and, while aggravatingly close to the line, they remained tied. Ill disciplined and conceding penalties, Portadown began to grow impatient and resorted to play that caused several scuffles, resulting in yellow cards for their blindside Taylor Tweedie and Letterkenny’s number eight Dermot Dunleavy.

Letterkenny were adamant to restore and maintain discipline, forcing a penalty on the ten metre line in the last play of the half. Ryan Mortimer added the three points to go in 3-0 at the break. The second half, although against the wind, saw Letterkenny stretch out a healthy lead. After only three minutes, consistent crash ball from the forwards exerted too much pressure on the Portadown defence, allowing Joe Dunleavy, who shone throughout the match, to go over for the game’s first try. The conversion stretched the lead, but the home side could not afford to relax.

Another ten minutes of intense and aggressive rugby passed before the next score came. Impressive hands out wide created enough space for Donegal Town/ Letterkenny convert Mark Gillespie to out-pace several defenders down the touchline and score in the corner in his debut for the club. Portadown did not break into the game as Letterkenny had managed to do, suffering the press defence of Daniel Faulkner and Joe Dunleavy to be driven down into the ground. Scrum half Ben Khavia bossed the forwards around the breakdown to edge close to the try line. A simple crash ball to Mortimer added another seven points to the scoreboard.

During the second half all of the Letterkenny bench was utilised to great effect with strong running and defence from Kevin Grant and, on his debut, Alex Boyle adding to the attacking threat.

Having lost winger Chris Breen to the sinbin for another display of poor discipline, Portadown were under continual pressure and were forced to kick to relieve the defence. One such clearance came into the hands of winger Oisin Toal, who made a fifty metre dash up the sideline before being tackled just short of the line, offloading to Faulkner to score in the corner. The conversion brought the score to 29-0, the final whistle sounded immediately after.

Portadown were never able to allow their playmakers of half-backs William Holden and Ben Jameson to get contol of the game and ill discipline and continual bickering within the team lead to their downfall

The game was the last in the league campaign and the convincing result gave Letterkenny a well-earned second place in the league table. The side will have that healthy win under their belt in preparation for the upcoming Cup game against Coleraine.

Letterkenny team; 1. D.Doyle 2. S.Holmes 3. K.Wilson 4. D.Gallagher 5. C.O’Neill 6. J.Dunleavy 7. M.Molloy 8. D.Dunleavy 9. B.Khavia 10. R.Mortimer (Cpt) 11. A.Boal-Quinn 12. P.Scott 13. D.Faulkner 14. D.Bruce 15. E.Walsh. Reps; C.Sweeney, O.Toal, D.Toal,K.Grant, M.Gillespie, A.Boyle.

Portadown team; 1. M.Gill 2. W.Craig 3. N.Dawson 4. S.Heyburn 5.J.Dickson 6. T.Tweedie 7.B.Green 8. J.Wright 9. W.Holden 10. B.Jameson 11. J.Grant 12.C.Megarity 13. R.Quinn 14. C.Breen 15. T.Ashfield-Beattie. Reps; C.Swift, S.McClelland.