Greenock Telegraph | Sport | Wanderers suffer yet again on their travels

Thursday, 20th November, 2008

Published: Monday, 10th September, 2007 16:30

Wanderers suffer yet again on their travels

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GRAPPLE AND ROLL: Kevin Murray provided the pass for Wanderers’ sole try.

Pic by: Douglas Hendry

East Kilbride 30,

Greenock Wanderers 5

Greenock Wanderers fell to a strong and experienced East Kilbride side at Torrance House on Saturday, although they did make some rapid improvements from their previous outing.

In a match played in glorious sunshine, Wanderers enjoyed a fair share of possession and some good field position, but failed to capitalise when it mattered and turn pressure into points. East Kilbride, on the other hand, took every opportunity to keep the scoreboard ticking over and thoroughly deserved their victory.

East Kilbride got the scoring under way in nine minutes when hooker Bertie Blackwood slotted a penalty from wide on the right.

In 15 minutes, East Kilbride forced a scrum near to Wanderers’ line and in front of the posts. Two tilts at the line failed to breach the locals’ defence, but when scrum half Fraser Stott spun the ball wide, right winger Gordon Stevenson was there to touch down in the corner. Blackwood converted and the hosts had stretched their lead to 10-0.

In 36 minutes another fine, sweeping move from East Kilbride, instigated by Stott, created the overlap wide on the right and centre Larry Gabbler touched down. Blackwood slotted again and, at 17-0, Wanderers had a mountain to climb to get back into the match.

The response was immediate, and straight from kick-off Wanderers gained a foothold in the East Kilbride half. As half-time beckoned Kevin Murray jinked his way through the hosts’ backline and popped a pass to supporting runner Graham Mooney who outstripped the cover defence to touch down. The conversion was missed, but Wanderers had served notice that the match was not yet over.

The second half started brightly for East Kilbride and an excellent move set winger Stevenson clear for what appeared an easy run into the line. Wanderers’ McGroarty had other ideas and appeared from seemingly nowhere to smash the winger into touch and save a certain score.

Pressure on the Wanderers line eventually meant penalties and Blackwood slotted another three points from the tee on 43 minutes. Once more Wanderers rallied and forced penalty chances themselves, but were unable to capitalise.

In 69 minutes East Kilbride stand-off Scott Dalgleish ended the game as a contest with a drop goal from close range, which stretched the hosts lead to 23-5. In the last minute the hosts underlined their victory with a fine try from a rolling maul, off a catch and drive at the lineout. When the bodies had cleared wing forward and skipper Alan Steel was holding the ball. Blackwood had the final say and his conversion from wide on the right was good and completed the scoring at 30-5.

Wanderers: J Stewart, J Smith, B McGroarty, C Clark Wright, K Murray, A McDougall, D Craven {C}, S Chundoo, M Coyle, S Bleasdale, J Mooney, C Robb, G Mooney, G Finnie, Replacements all used M Duncan [for G Finnie 30 mins injury], M Rodger [ for M Coyle 60 mins], A Devlin [for G Mooney 65 mins injury].

l Wanderers are sponsored by National Semiconductor {UK} Ltd.

l Wanderers’ new club physiotherapist, Jennifer Duncan, took her place in the technical area for the first time at Saturday’s match and did an excellent job. Injuries to Graham Finnie, Graham Mooney, plus the usual running repairs to a number of players, were all dealt with easily. All at Wanderers welcome Jennifer on board.

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