A narrow defeat at Bangor finishing 17-12 with Kyles first game in charge, new Omagh Accies coach Glenn Kyle felt there were more positives than negatives for him to take from the encounter.

A lockdown situation forced prior to their scheduled Community Series opener and having to sit out several training sessions as a result, Kyle was pleased with his team’s overall performance on Saturday given their lack of recent action.

There was plenty on show from his slightly ring-rusty outfit to tell him they are heading in the right direction, with the only concern the upper hand the Seasider’s pack had over their County Tyrone counterparts.

“Generally, we’re leaving Bangor annoyed and upset at being beat but at the same time a lot of really good points came out of it,” he beamed.

“But that was our first game of the season, we’re cold, so for the guys to have a light session on Thursday night and to be thrown into a game after a two week lockdown.

“Our biggest negative was our scrum struggled, but the boys that we had did very, very well. There were a lot more positives than negatives for us, with the only positive Bangor had over us being their scrum, which was two or three stone heavier per man!

“That’s a significant difference when you add it all together but we had some stand-out performances from big Jamie Sproule in the second row, outstanding, I brought Jack Mitchell and he added a wee edge in defence when he came on.

“Our defence was fantastic, but the only downside was our scrum. Our lineout functioned very well but they did a lot of damage to us at scrum time, which is something we’ll have to work on.

“Our open play was really good, we had a lot of really good moves that came off and we were really happy with a lot of things that we did.”

Bangor opened the scoring in the first half when number eight Michael Weir crossed the Omagh whitewash before Mark Best added the extras but the Accies produced one of their trademark flowing moves to draw level a short time later when the ball was moved wide for Scott Barr to touch down in the corner. Kyle Beattie added the difficult conversion.

Before the break, the home side regained their seven point advantage when David Bradford scored the Seasider’s second try of the game, which was again converted by Best.

But after the half-time break, Omagh responded well with Deane Kane bringing Kyle’s men to within two points of their hosts with an unconverted score after Beattie’s attempt for the extras rebounded off the upright.

Unfortunately for the Accies, even after Bangor were reduced to 14 men with 10 minutes remaining, they were unable to find another way through the home defence and when Best knocked over an insurance penalty that was the result sealed for the County Down side.

BY CHRIS CALDWELL

OMAGH ACCIES TEAM

N Kilfedder, A Pollock, M Smyth, Ja Sproule, R Sproule, J Longwell, A Longwell (cpt), M Clyde, S McCain, K Beattie, R Mitchell, L Hanson, D Kane, S Barr, S Maclaine. Replacements: R Hemphill, G McKinley, M Edgar, T Lagan, O Nelson, J Mitchell.