GHK v East Kilbride Match Report

GHK v East Kilbride RFC - RBS West Region League 1 – Saturday 14 December 2013
East Kilbride, a side who have made life very difficult for GHK in meetings between the clubs in recent years, were the visitors to Old Anniesland this Saturday. A double booking in terms of fixtures at Anniesland meant that Hawks were due to play Marr on the main pitch and GHK would play EK on one of the junior pitches. The late morning/early afternoon monsoon caused the Hawks game to be moved to New Anniesland but GHK fixture remained as arranged on the back pitch.
EK had the benefit of the wind and driving rain in the first half, but as is so often the case, the side challenging the elements had the better of the early exchanges. Indeed, GHK dominated the opening quarter, keeping play in the visitors’ half and threatening their line on a number of occasions. It was no great surprise that after a series of attacking combinations that stretched the EK defence, Adam McLay drove over for a fine try with Scott Robertson adding the conversion. 7 – 0 to GHK after ten minutes.
EK finally got out of neutral and took play in to the GHK half. They spurned a chance to close the gap when a very kickable penalty, well perhaps very kickable in decent conditions, was scuffed along the gound. However, it was not long until EK opened their try account from a powerful catch and drive that had an inevitability about it as the power of the visiting eight was starting to emerge.
GHK were still managing to create an opportunity or two in attack, but EK had found their rhythm and looked threatening not only up front but also with ball in hand behind the scrum with both centres and full back being particularly damaging runners. Just short of the half hour mark GHK had possession in midfield and tried to move the ball out the backs. The aggressive Kilbride defence tackled solidly, ripped possession and the visiting outside centre blitzed through a fragmented GHK defence for try number two that was converted making the score 12 – 7 to the visitors with about ten minutes of the half remaining.
Despite EK being able to spend most of the remainder of the half in the GHK twenty two, the home side managed to hold out till half time with no further damage to the score board. Most of the OA support were of the view that a five point deficit at the break, given the conditions, was not at all bad. With the wind, rain and the knowledge that the first half damage sustained had been relatively modest, there was genuine optimism that GHK had the capacity to turn this round. How wrong we were.
EK kicked off the second half and thereafter succeeded in playing the game in GHK territory for virtually the entire second period. If we had the aid of a computer thingy that gave you statistics about possession and territory it would make pretty scary reading for GHK. Quite possibly seventy five per cent plus to the visitors on both counts. It was an utterly dominant display by the EK team who took up where they had left off in the latter stages of the first half. Speaking to one of their players in the clubhouse afterwards, he almost sheepishly described their performance as an ‘up the jumper’ effort. I had to disagree. Whilst they played the very testing conditions smartly, they did so by way of a combination of forwards and backs who looked to attack at every opportunity and demonstrated handling skills that defied the appalling conditions.
The visitors had a total stranglehold on proceedings and time and again punched holes in the GHK defence via the powerful backs and squeezed the GHK forwards in the tight as well as at the breakdown. The home kicking game was not working and visits to the EK twenty two were very infrequent. EK were bossing the game and it was no great surprise when they added two further tries, one of which was converted, and for good measure a penalty was kicked to take the final score to 27 – 7 to East Kilbride. The visiting supporters and coaching team were rightly delighted with the performance of their side. For the GHK followers, at least there were the delights of the clubhouse to revive flagging spirits.
Congratulations to East Kilbride for a very impressive performance indeed. Talk about laying down a marker for the rest of the season! It was a controlled, aggressive and remarkably skilful display given the conditions. With a raft of home league fixtures to come, EK must be serious contenders for a promotion position. The EK players that lingered in the pavilion were very gracious in victory and some were even prepared to try the delights of a Saturday night in the West End by way of celebration. We hope that you made it home safely – eventually.
It was not GHK’s best day. They did run in to a side that appeared to have the tools to do the job on a day like we had on Saturday. However, for the first twenty minutes or so it was the home team that was asking the questions. Some encouragement can be taken from that. However, when the tide turned, almost literally, GHK seemed unable to contend with what was being thrown at them. We met a side on a good day for them and were a bit off the pace. It will certainly make life interesting in the next couple of months, starting next week against Glasgow Accies at OA.
GHK Man of the Match – for another committed grafting, hard tackling display, Colin Neilson.

This article was posted on 15-Dec-2013, 17:46 by Ronnie Gourley.

This article was posted on 16-Dec-2013, 09:13 by Hugh Barrow.