The Amateurs lose out to the leaders despite Rowan's early opener

The locals had held their high-flying opponents to a 2-2 draw two weeks previous and followed it up with all three points against fellow strugglers Iveagh.

However, they couldn’t repeat the heroics on Saturday as they were swept aside by the a Dunmurry team tied on points with Downshire YM at the league summit. Dromore even saw Walker sent off to compound a disappointing day.

Going into the game, confidence was high in the Dromore camp and that showed as they took an early lead.

Just two minutes in, a Dunmurry clearance landed at the boot of Matty Rowan. He drove the ball low and hard into the bottom corner from 25 yards out to put the home team in front.

Instead of pushing on after a great start though, Dromore were soon pegged back. It was Dunmurry who went on the attack and it wasn’t long before they equalised. The goal came after their right winger ran 40 yards without a Dromore tackle being put in and he took full advantage, calmly finishing past Coady in the Dromore goal.

It was all Dunmurrry and on 20 minutes they took the lead when the left winger crossed for the big centre forward to head into the Dromore goal.

It was end to end stuff and Dromore hadn’t given up. They should even have equalised when a superb Fletcher cross found the head of Rowan only to see the Dunmurry keeper make a point blank save to tip over the bar.

That left the scores at 2-1 at half-time. Manager Brownlee knew it was important that Dromore came out in the second half with the same tempo that they had finished the first.

He made that clear but his orders fell on deaf ears as it was Dunmurry who started brightly. Only for Coady in the Dromore goal, they could have been 3-1 down early in the half.

Downey up front for Dromore was, however, causing the Dunmurry defence problems anytime the ball went forward and from his knock-down, Haslem nearly got the equaliser but his shot went past the post.

That was to be the turning point as Dromore went down to 10 men when Walker was sent off for his second yellow.

Dunmurry scored two quick goals to increase their lead to 4-1 and kill of the game as a contest.

They even got a fifth late on to finish the scoring off at 5-1.

Overall, manager Brownlee was disappointed with the way the team conceded some of the goals with individual errors and is hoping for an immediate response in training this week.

At the time of going to press, the Amateurs had no fixture scheduled for Saturday.

DROMORE: R.Coady, W.McMurray, R.Walker, A.McDonald, T.Martin, P.Tinsley, J.Beattie, G.Flethcher, S.Haslem, M.Rowan, S.Downey. Subs: G.Rowan, C.Gilliland, D.Maguire.