It's too early in the season to turn thoughts to panic or crisis, said Cork Constitution assistant coach Ralph Keyes after watching his side slump to a second successive All-Ireland League Division One defeat. But the former Irish international did admit that the Cork team scarcely deserved to be still in with a chance of stealing a result when Dungannon scrambled victory with a late try.
"We're not thinking in terms of crisis. Three of our first four games are away from home, and that's a tall order, to be expected to win when you're travelling all the time," said Keyes. "But I can assure you teams will not look forward to coming down to Cork."
Of this game he said: "We came back well into it in the second half, but we really hadn't been in the match at all in the first half. We were always under pressure, and although we were 6-3 up at half-time we really didn't deserve to be.
"But, nevertheless, at 9-8, some bad decision-making on our part put us back under pressure and Dungannon took full advantage."
Cork were hanging on by a single point with just a minute of normal time remaining when Dungannon finally found a way through a heroic defence for centre Alistair Clarke to score.
There was little else to cheer the home support on a bleak December afternoon which saw them fail to turn their first-half advantage into points. And it was the accuracy of Ronan O'Gara which edged the visitors into a 6-3 inteval lead, the out-half missing a chance to put his side further ahead when he saw a dropped goal attempt strike a post.
Dungannon's Robin Morrow, despite his energy and invention, was having a miserable day with his place-kicking, hitting the target just once from four attempts. But Morrow did atone for his wastefulness when he carved out the opening for winger Nicky Moffett to dive in for a try in the corner seven minutes into the second half, to give them an 8-6 lead.
Moffett was soon after forced to retire from the action due to injury, but his replacement, Ashley Blair, operating at out-half, was to have a huge influence on the game.
Cork were defending desperately, twice stopping Dungannon just short of the line as Moffett went in search of his second try. But they managed to weather the storm without further damage and turned the game around at the end of almost half an hour on the back foot.
After Morrow missed a chance to extend Dungannon's lead from an easy penalty, Constitution sensed that something could be salvaged from an untidy game. And when Dungannon were penalised for off-side 14 minutes from the end, O'Gara's kick from 25 metres sailed between the posts for his third success from three attempts.
Blair's searching kicks for touch, however, gradually swung the contest back in Dungannon's favour, and it was one of his lengthy clearances to touch that brought play back towards the Cork line. The powerful home pack finally got going with purpose, and Blair was at the centre of the move to release Clarke for a late, late try under the posts.
Blair added the conversion, and an injury-time penalty to secure an important victory - and their first points - for Dungannon.
Scoring sequence: 6 min: R O'Gara pen, 03; 36: R O'Gara pen, 0-6; 39: R Morrow pen, 36; 47: N Moffett try, 8-6; 66: R O'Gara pen, 8-9; 79: A Clarke try, A Blair con, 15-9; 82: A Blair pen, 18-9.
Dungannon: A Hood; N Moffett, A Redpath, A Clarke, R Carey; R Morrow, S Bell; D Millar, C Farrell, G Leslie, C Simpson, K Walker, A Girvan, P Curry, J Hastings. Replacements: M Smith for Curry; H McCaughey for Farrell; A Blair for Moffett.
Cork Constitution: Kenny Murphy; A Horgan, N Murray, A Byrne, J Kelly; R O'Gara, B O'Meara; P Snoden, F Sheahan, J O'Driscoll, Ken Murphy, R Newell, J Kahn, U O'Callaghan, C Kehelly. Replacement: J Devane for O'Callaghan.
Referee: G Black (Leinster Branch).
