GREENOCK Wanderers did themselves proud under the floodlights at Old Anniesland on Friday night when they pushed Glasgow Hawks all the way in a Scottish Cup sectional tie.

Wanderers were confirmed underdogs for the fixture but matched their more fancied opponents in all aspects of the game and even dominated for periods in both the first and second half.

In truth the 22-6 scoreline flattered the hosts who looked decidedly rattled on numerous occasions but Wanderers' inability to capitalise on scoring opportunities greatly affected their chances.

For Wanderers it was a performance full of gritty determination and no little skill. Scrum-half Andy McDougall had a superb game and kept the Hawks defence on their toes all night with his repertoire of moves around the base of the contact zone.

He made numerous breaks and embarrassed the hosts back row defence who found it difficult to read what the Wanderers playmaker would do next.

Up front the Wanderers pack toiled manfully and although under pressure in the scrum managed to secure a sufficient supply of possession to pose a real threat to the Hawks defence.

Skipper Ally Abernethy, Matt Gray and Graham Mooney were prominent as was youngster Anton Ward who had to replace injured Callum Robb in the opening minutes.

Behind the scrum Callum Harrison had another assured game and the Wanderers back line, with vice-captain Brendan McGroarty, Leigh Tyley and winger James Kemp on fine form, dealt comfortably with everything the hosts threw at them.

The early exchanges were confined to midfield but Wanderers looked at ease against the Glasgow side and were not overawed in any way by their more illustrious opponents.

Callum Robb's early withdrawal through injury caused the coaches to readjust their line-up and Hawks took full advantage on the 10 minute mark.

The hosts' secured good field position deep inside Wanderers half and went through several phases of driving play before spinning the ball wide to scrum half Paddy Boyer to dive in at the corner. Full-back James Gormley converted from wide on the left to put Hawks 7-0 ahead.

The visitors remained calm though and began to stamp their authority on the match with a quick rucking game engineered by McDougall and well executed by the forwards.

On 20 minutes Murray McDonald drove into the heart of the Hawks defence and when they crept offside at the ensuing breakdown, Referee Gary Gordon awarded Wanderers a penalty.

Ant Devlin made no mistake with a fine kick from 30 yards out.

Eight minutes later more quality rucking play yielded another penalty when a similar award went the way of the Greenock men. Devlin once more obliged from the tee to reduce the deficit to 7-6 at the interval.

The large and vociferous travelling support from Greenock got right behind their team but it was Hawks who seized the initiative in the early stages of the second half.

On 45 minutes replacement hooker Callum Kelly dived in at the corner after several phases of play had sucked in the Wanderers defence to stretch the lead to 12-6.

Thereafter the visitors enjoyed their best spell of the match.

Over the next 15 minutes Wanderers were camped inside the Hawks half and had opportunities to score but failed to breach the hosts' defence.

The penalty count rose in Wanderers favour and Devlin had four chances to reduce the deficit but narrowly missed on each occasion. In fairness to the Wanderers kicker the distances and angles were at the far end of his range.

Having weathered the storm Hawks rallied strongly in the final quarter and their pressure told with two further tries.

On 65 minutes winger Marc Taylor finished off a fine flowing backs move and with five minutes remaining hooker Kelly repeated the dose from earlier and burrowed over for his second try of the match to complete the scoring.

Head coach Graham Finnie said: "It was a great performance and I am really proud of the effort and commitment of all the players.

"However we are really disappointed that we didn't get anything from the game. We need to be converting that amount of pressure into points.

"If we had achieved that we may have pushed Hawks a bit closer" Wanderers continue their cup campaign next Saturday with a home game against Dumfries Saints.

- Wanderers are sponsored by Texas Instruments.