Douglas win Manx Cup thriller

Douglas rounded off their season with a thrilling extra-time Manx Cup win over old rivals Vagabonds.

Star of the show was Douglas stand-off Bryn Snellgrove who bagged 21 points for Douglas, including a pivotal touchline conversion to level the scores in the final minute of normal time.

That left the score at 21-21 and forced the extra period.

Snellgrove and Vagabonds’ Michael Oates had exchanged penalties early on before the game really came to life after 10 minutes when Peter Bradley’s pass found Mike Hebden in space on the left wing and he raced home to put Douglas ahead 8-3.

Snellgrove added a penalty after 17 minutes to make it 11-3, with Douglas looking the sharper.

Vagas hauled themselves back into the game with an Oates penalty and an Ekong Bell try just before half-time to level the scores at 11-11.

Early in the second half, Vagas got their noses in front when Andy Pease outpaced the Douglas defence on the left to make it 16-11.

Snellgrove countered for Douglas with a penalty from the restart to pull the score back to 14-16.

With the game finely poised, Vagabonds took charge again. Simon Heggs drifted through some slack tackling for a try which gave Vagas a 21-14 lead.

They held onto this until the last minute when Snellgrove manufactured a try for Sam Randall and then kicked the touchline conversion to send the game into extra time.

With Vagabonds looking very tired, Douglas were quick to gain the upper hand in the first period of extra time.

Snellgrove kicked a penalty to make it 24-21 and shortly afterwards he gathered a bouncing ball at full speed on the left wing and touched down for the decisive try.

He nailed his second touchline conversion to gave Douglas a 31-21 lead.

Vagas tried to hit back but had nothing left and when Hebden struck a late drop goal to make it 34-21, the game was by and large already won.