By Jonathan Brown
THE nets at the Mourne Esplanade haven’t stopped rustling of late – Dunnaman have scored 32 goals this season, including 12 in the recent game against Goodyear last Saturday. In their opening ten league games, Dunnaman have won six and drawn two, propelling the club to the top of the Mid-Ulster League Division 2 table.
Head coach Christopher Mulligan explained how possessing such a young squad enables him to play a brand of “high octane” football. “In the past few weeks, we’ve actually missed a lot of chances in games, and the games have looked a bit tighter and closer. We try and get on the front foot – it’s high octane, it’s bringing the pressure early high up the field, trying to win the ball back in transition and getting those scoring opportunities, and you can do that with a young, fit side. And we finish games strong as well.”
At the other end of the pitch, Dunnaman have only conceded 18 goals and two members of the backline in particular have stood out in the eyes of the manager. “If you go through a lot of the Mid-Ulster divisions, as boys get older, you find them dropping into the backline, but in the Goodyear game, we had an 18-year-old at right back, an 18-year-old at left back, a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old at centre half.
“Darragh McAlinden is a Rolls Royce of a defender. He’s big, he’s tall, he’s athletic, he’s calm on the ball, he’s got a lot about him. He’s a young man in terms of his age but he’s well versed in what he does. James McComiskey, our left back, has got a lot of plaudits in the last few games. He’s getting better and better with each game he plays, in terms of learning the left back role and the different aspects to it.”
It’s been a seamless managerial transition at Dunnaman so far this season; head coach Christopher Mulligan, assisted by Adrian Hodnett and former club captain Darragh Campbell, replaced Ryan McMillan, who led the club to a Mid-Ulster Division 3 title win in the 2023/24 season, in the dugout over the summer period.
It hasn’t been all plain sailing though, with the manager admitting he was “scraping a team together” at the start of the season. Many of his squad were involved in the Down GAA Championship with the likes of Ballymartin, Atticall, Longstone, and An Riocht, although the Dunnaman manager is pleased with how players like Padraig Clarke, James McComiskey, Niall Burden, Darragh McMillan, and Dylan Marsh, all of whom have been advanced from the youth set-up this year, have adapted to first team football.
“In the first few games, we were scraping a team together, but we managed to get a few results and then with players coming back again, it was adding into the factor of gradually getting more competitive and getting more consistency. Overall, I’m really pleased, because we’re such a young side, and we’ve blooded a good few boys that have come through the youth system. In a recent game, I looked at the squad and the average age was 21.”
In the full article Chris explains that promotion is viable, but one thing has to go right. Find out what he said that was.
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