The Verri Industries Douglas United Dragons have come as close as you can get to lifting the Far North Queensland Premier League after beating Innisfail 2-0 on Sunday evening.

Needing to win and hope that Marlin Coast slipped up, the Dragons fulfilled their part of the bargain with two second half goals ensuring they would make Marlin Coast work for the title.

However, as the players left the field news filtered through that Marlin Coast had indeed beaten Edge Hill meaning that they had won the minor premiership on goal difference.

The match itself was a fairly even affair with the Dragons guilty of trying to rush things all too often. It seemed that the nerves associated with the occasion got the better of the players to some degree with the Dragons moving away from the football that had served them so well up to this point.

There was not a huge amount of goal mouth action to speak of in the first half, Nick Houghton had a shot deflected just over and also headed just wide from an Ian Marsh free kick.

Into the second half and the Dragons began to play with more intent. Ian Marsh’s audacious volley had the Innisfail keeper scrambling back towards goal and gratefully watching the ball fall just wide while the Dragons were looking more and more threatening from set pieces.

The Dragons took the lead ten minutes into the second spell when a delightful ball from captain Nick Tither released Nick Houghton who steadied himself before slipping the ball past the keeper and into the back of the net.

After the goal Innisfail rallied putting the Dragons under pressure for a sustained period however the Dragons' defence held firm and they looked to have made the points safe when Matt Hill came in from his wide left position to stroke the ball home following good build up play down the Dragons' right.

There was still time for the Dragons to concede a penalty, albeit under somewhat harsh circumstances. Valentine Akem made what looked to be a perfectly time, ball-winning tackle only for the linesman to flag for a foul.

Luckily for the Dragons, Gary Fitzgerald was at his very best and squeezed the ball over the bar and out for a corner. After that the Dragons held on comfortably to record their twelfth win of the season and extend their unbeaten run to fourteen matches.

All that was left to do was to wait on the news from the Marlin Coast game. When the score game through the Dragons lads were obviously a bit deflated knowing they had come so close to what would have been an historic title for the club.

There is still a good chance of silverware though with the Dragons heading to Marlin Coast on Saturday night in the major qualifying final. The Paddy’s Bar Man of the Match went to Ollie Moffat who was outstanding at right back.