GREENOCK Wanderers travelled to Dalziel Park on Saturday to play bottom-placed Dalziel with high hopes of getting back to winning ways following the defeat at Whitecraigs a fortnight ago.

Wanderers still have to contend with a lengthy injury list which has given some of the fringe players in the squad a chance to step up and stake a claim for a more permanent place in the team.

Even without many of their regular players, though, Greenock should still have had too much fire power for a side that has only recorded two victories from 12 outings this season.

It was the Greenock side that enjoyed the better of the opening encounters which saw them awarded a couple of early penalties.

However, having put themselves in good attacking positions they then contrived to lose the resultant line-outs on their own throw.

This was a pattern that was to be repeated throughout the afternoon and this inability to secure good possession from these set piece situations denied the potent Greenock backline the chance to put any real pressure on the opposition.

Dalziel started to grow in confidence and take advantage of the possession coming their way, and in the 12th minute of the match they were rewarded with a good score following some neat interplay which enabled scrum half Donnachie to go over for the first points of the day.

The conversion however went wide.

Wanderers tried to up the tempo but time and again poor handling let them down and a combination of dropped balls and Dalziel penalties thwarted their attempts to break out of their own half. This was made worse by the fact that every time Dalziel gave away a penalty Wanderers would put in a short kick to touch, only to once again turn over possession at the following lineout. The one bright spot being that Wanderers had been dominant in the scrums but this started to fade which allowed Dalziel to increase the pressure on the Greenock team.

Dalziel continued to attack and kept play deep in the Wanderers half but indiscipline saw them give away a number of penalties which allowed the Greenock team to clear their lines.

However, referee Duncan McClement eventually lost patience with the home side and second row David Fitzpatrick was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes for persistent infringements.

The away support were hopeful that this would be the turning point of the game but the lineout problems continued and Greenock were being penalised for not throwing in straight.

Unable to capitalise on the extra man, half time arrived with Dalziel still leading by five points to nil.

The second half carried on pretty much the same as the first, however, Michael Frizzel took up the kicking duties and at least the penalties were now putting play down into the Dalziel half.

Ten minutes into the second half the Wanderers backs at last got some ball that they could work with and the away support thought that Brendan McGroarty, pictured, had made it over the line.

However, much to the amazement of the Greenock contingent the referee decided that there had been a knock on, and disallowed the try.

The pressure eventually told though when the home side were penalised at a ruck in their own 22 shortly thereafter and Tyley stepped up to send the ball in off the post to make it 5-3.

As play got under way again Greenock were awarded a scrum but as the two packs settled down an altercation broke out between two of the front row players, and referee McClement having seen Dalziel's Sloan and Greenock's Cooper trading blows was left with no option other than to send both players off.

The game developed into a scrappy affair and whilst Greenock did have a number of opportunities to put points on the board it was Dalziel who broke out and with about 10 minutes remaining seemed to have sealed the game when winger Rowe knocked the ball forward in the air and caught it before it hit the ground, and released his centre Westwood to score in the corner to put the home side 10-3 ahead.

Once again the conversion went wide.

With time rapidly running out, Wanderers at last put some phases together as they tried to force the pace and get back on level terms.

Finally, with the clock ticking into injury time Harrison broke through the defence, hacked on, and allowed McGroarty to collect and score under the posts. Tyley knocked over the simple conversion to bring the scores to 10 apiece.

That should have been that but the referee played some six minutes of injury time leading to a very nervy end to the game.

Overall, this was a poor performance by the Greenock side when put against the standards they have set themselves this season, and they will have to raise their game considerably before table toppers GHA arrive at Fort Matida on Saturday on league business. As they look back on this match, they will realise that they simply cannot turn over so much of their own set piece ball and expect to win games.

Wanderers: Leigh Tyley Sean Connolly, Brendan McGroarty, Kieren Smith, James Kemp, Callum Harrison, Andy McDougall, Liam Campbell, Andrew Love, Mark Standlick, Matt Gray, Murray McDonald, Anton Ward, Ali Abernethy {C}, John Stewart, Replacements: Alex Lyon, A J Cooper, Michael Frizzel Wanderers are sponsored by Texas Instruments.