Bannockburn 7 – 8 Stobswell

Following last week’s narrow 7 – 6 away victory over Strathie 2’s , we won again by the same margin, but the closeness of the score does not reflect the dominance we had. Only a combination of good defensive work by ‘Burn and some wrong decision making by us in attack prevented a bigger winning margin.

Playing uphill and against the wind in the first half, we pressed from the start but were unable to get the break-through. The game was scrappy at times in the early stages and after 10 minutes play both sides found themselves down to 14 men after each having a player sin-binned for fighting. It was during this period ‘Burn took the lead when we delayed clearing the ball to touch. The clearance kick was charged down and the winger fell on the ball as it bounced over the line in the corner. ‘Burn’s good fortune continued when the conversion attempt hit the cross-bar and went over.

Despite dominating the lineouts with our own version of the twin towers ( Findlay, and Colin McCowan) the game remained scrappy, with most of the play being contained in mid-field. Although Colin did make a good break from the back of a maul, but he ran out steam as he entered the 22 and ‘Burn were able to clear the ball to safety.

The second half saw us upping our height and weight advantage over ‘Burn by bringing on Mick Tunstall and Ray Bennett and we continued in the same vein as the first, dominating possession and territory. Following a scissors move in the centre, Ray went close to scoring under the posts, but we were unable to recycle possession and ‘Burn cleared the ball to safety.

We were not to be denied a score and mid-way through the half we eventually got the try our play deserved. A scrum outside the home 22 saw Justin breaking down the blind-side before feeding the ball to Ben McPherson, who went over in the corner. Kenny’s non-kicking foot slipped as he connected with the ball and the conversion attempt drifted wide.

With 5 minutes remaining we took the lead with a penalty kick by Kenny after ‘Burn were caught offside at a ruck. ‘Burn tried hard to regain the lead but we held out for a much deserved win. However the win was marred by Teabag being carried off in the second half after injuring his ankle.

There was, however, one moment of controversy in the second half when Spunky found himself on the end of some verbal abuse from the ‘Burn prop. Chris Blackburn ran round the outside of the prop, who claimed that in doing so, Chris stepped over the cones marking the touchline. His rant continued for half the length of the pitch as play went on, on the other side of the field. The ‘Burn prop did motion as though he was going to headbutt Spunky, but unlike a footballer, who would have collapsed in a heap, Spunky stood his ground. Then again he didn’t have a change of clothes so maybe he didn’t want to face the wrath of Margaret by going home in muddy clothes.

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