Date: Saturday, 17th September 2005
Kickoff time: 15:00
Against: Ayr
Team: Hawks 1st XV
Location: Home
Competition: Premiership Division 1
Final score: 21 - 10 (won)

The match from an Ayr perspective Glasgow Hawks 21 Ayr 10 (h/t 9-7)............. Th monkey clings on tightly. The monkey on Ayr’s back which prevents them performing away from home and which coach Craig Redpath would dearly love to shrug off. It was there again on Saturday when the coach reckoned Ayr gave their best league performance against the current champions since coming up to BT Premier Division 1. Even that was not good enough as the Old Anniesland crew ground out a win, coming from behind in each half to clinch a result which now sees them four points clear at the top of the table and the only side with a one hundred per cent record. The first incident of note was the absurd yellow carding of Hawks No8 Mark Stich by referee Paul Burr, of whom more later, followed by a Mike Adamson penalty then a drop goal slammed over from thirty five meters by Murray Strang to give Hawks a 6-0 lead. Ayr hit back, Jonny McClung opened up the Hawks defence and put Nick Lavelle over for James Noonan to convert and take Ayr into the lead. Moments later Hawks were back on top after Adamson slotted a penalty but at only 9-7 adrift at the break there was much for the visitors to play for in the second half. Ayr regained the lead with a Noonan penalty four minutes into the second half but that was the last time their side of the scoreboard shifted, Hawks taking charge after Ewen Logan, in a case of mistaken identity admitted by referee Paul Burr, yes, coming to him shortly, was binned for ten minutes. Hawks started to put the phases together and when they drove from a line out close to the Ayr line, it was no surprise when prop Peter Dalton emerged with the ball and the try. Strang set up the next one, beating a couple of Ayr tackles then offloading niftily to wing Steve Gordon who picked the perfect angle through the Ayr defence for try number two. Ayr threw everything into a frenzied final spell but this Hawks side has the winning habit and know exactly what they have to do to defend a lead and did it with flint hard, ruthless efficiency. So, disappointment for an Ayr side who had trained well during the week and who went to Old Anniesland with a more positive attitude than in either of their visits in previous seasons but to no avail. And what about the referee? Now there is no suggestion that Paul Burr was the cause of Ayr losing, the only losers being the fans who had paid good money to watch a potentially cracking game ruined by a referee officiating at a level a long way out of his depth. You may remember my comments in this column before about Mr Burr’s ability as a referee, suffice to say that his affinity with the players make George Galloway and Chris Hitchens look like bosom buddies. And it is not just me. “I am all in favour of giving young referees a chance but he has been around for a couple of years not come on at all”. So said Hawks coach David Wilson while Craig Redpath observed that there were two better referees running touch. So where did Ayr go wrong or was it just Hawks winning mentality? “There is no doubt that they toughed it out” said a very disappointed Ayr coach. “They are a very clinical side and will hit you when they know you are vulnerable. We were 10-9 up when Ewen Logan was binned and they put the pressure on. The annoying thing is that we were defending well and didn’t need to offend but we did and that gave them the opportunities they needed.” “When we were trying to put pressure on them, we missed the opportunity to do a couple of things in terms of territory gains and that is the sort of chance Hawks would have taken to keep the pressure on us.” “As far as staying in the game is concerned, that was our best performance against Hawks but they have a winning habit and that is something you don’t just pick up, you have to work very hard at it.” “There were some real positives though, our line out caused them some problems and we pinched some of their ball which is very unusual and the scrum was pretty even and at times again our defence was outstanding. James Eddie put in a power of work in defence and Evan Kellow had an impressive start debut in place of the injured Paul Burke so we have to take that from the game but it still wasn’t enough to get the sort of result we wanted.” Ron Evans No team list has been added yet.

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