REGIONAL LEAGUE WEST ROUND-UP
Glasgow Academicals 12
Glasgow Southern 5
WHAT a difference a week makes. Having witnessed a Glasgow Southern side which shone in defeat the previous Saturday, it was odd to see the same team appear so disjointed.
It was not that Glasgow Academicals were that much better opposition, rather that the visitors played an over complicated game which never really looked likely to succeed.
The hosts, on the other hand, did handle simply and impressively, and but for some butter-fingered backs and great Southern tackling, they could have won at a canter.
One could see at a glance why so much has been written and said about Torquil Mathewson this season. His speed and strength caught the eye and, joy of joys, he was prepared to take on his opposite man.
The reshuffled Accies pack had its moments, especially in the set-piece, but was probably just edged out in the loose by the Southern eight.
Both teams have won promotion at their respective levels in the Tennents Premiership but will have work to do before cup duties beckon in a couple of weeks' time.
The scoring was opened for Accies by Steve Winter, appearing on the wing to finish off Chris Middleton's attack with a try. Julian Richmond stretched the lead after John Williams had dented the Southern defence. Stuart Simmers converted.
With just six minutes to go, Stewart Simcox snapped up a consolation try for Southern when he charged down Middleton's attempted clearance.
Glasgow Academicals - J Williams; T G R Mathewson, M Davis, D Ablett, I McAslan; C Middleton, S Simmers; D Porte, A Mason, G Doran, C Afuakwah, D Barr, C Brown, J W Richmond, S Winter.
Glasgow Southern - A P Healy; M Guthrie, D Sharkey, P Devlin, A Richardson; J Dunlop, G Allison; A McDougall, R Anderson, G Johnston, I Smith, A Tunn, J M Clinkenbeard, S J Simcox, G Remnant.
Referee - E Murray (Greenock Wanderers).
SCORERS: Glasgow Academicals - Winter, 1t; Richmond, 1t; Simmers, 1c. Glasgow Southern - Simcox, 1t.
q.THE most positive thing to emerge from the West Regional League has been the form of West of Scotland's James Craig, who again ran in three excellent tries - this time against Wigtownshire as West won 46-22 at Burnbrae.
Craig was playing on the right wing, but his best score came when he went to the left and produced a mazy run to touch down by the posts!
Centre Tyrone Greenshields had begun events by supporting Alan Williamson for a try within 30 seconds. Williamson scored twice, while David Jamieson and Scott McKechnie also touched down.
GHK broke their duck, winning 23-8 at Stirling County. Playing at full back, Gerry Hawkes had the experience to capitalise on County's inexperience and he set up two of the three tries scored by promising winger Geoff Caldwell. GHK's other try came from golden oldie Craig Eason.
County adopted strange second-half tactics, kicking when close to the GHK line and attempting to run it from their own twenty-two, but did produce a try for flanker Rob Wylie.
Having won the two Premiership encounters, Kilmarnock made it three with a 30-11 home success over Ayr. They would be disappointed to only lead 8-6 at the pause with a try from Mike Welsh but the clinching score came in 65 minutes when Ned Carswell finished off a pushover try from a scrum taken instead of a penalty.
In the final 10 minutes, James Adams and Welsh added further tries.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article