“ Accies Wilt in the Greenock Sunshine”

Greenock Wanderers 28 Glasgow Accies 16

Fort Matilda

Saturday 6th September 2008


On a bright and breezy day Accies were simply blown away in the first five minutes of this National League 2nd Division match in Greenock. Straight from the kick off a long downfield kick from stand off Ali McLaren was gathered on the Wanderers 22 by their full back. Accies were slow in chasing up the kick leaving the speedy full back ample time to run the ball back and link with his threequarter line. Several missed tackles later and Greenock were under the posts for a converted try. One minute played and Wanderers lead by 7-0. If that wasn’t a wake up call for Accies it should have been, but four minutes later in almost identical circumstances Wanderers repeated the dose and even to their own surprise found themselves 14-0 ahead with five minutes on the clock.

A much-changed Accies team with 5 or 6 key players missing were all at sea. The game plan was shot to bits and the lineout disintegrated. For almost all of the first quarter they were under huge pressure but managed to hold on.

Greenock were guilty of slowing down the release of the ball and in the 20th minute were penalised. Ali McLaren duly kicked the goal and a glimmer of light seemed to appear as Accies were playing with a little more composure. However this soon disappeared as the lively Wanderers back ran through a number of soft tackles to score again under the posts for a 21-7 lead with 10 minutes of the first period remaining.

Finally Accies backs strung together some neat passes and Mike Hermes had the line at his mercy but a poor pass to him was knocked on and a glorious chance to get back into the game was lost. Before half time Greenock were penalised twice in the own half and Ali McLaren kicked the goals the latter one from close to halfway to bring the half to a close at 24-9 to the home side.

Accies now had to play into the wind but almost made a perfect start when Cruz broke from a scrum on the 22 but his pass to Ian Williamson, who had space, went to ground and another chance was lost.

Greenock used the ball well with the wind and Accies found it harder and harder to break out of their own half. With the home side winning so much lineout ball it was little surprise that they scored again. A clever back move was poorly defended and once again the score was under the posts for a four-try bonus point and a 28-9 lead.

At this stage Accies were minus Pete Meiklem who had been controversially yellow carded.

With 20 minutes remaining and the Greenock side visibly tiring Accies got on top for the first time in the match. The Wanderers stand off made his first handling error when he dropped the ball on his own line and from the subsequent scrum Cruz simply ploughed over.

Stewart Smith was desperately trying to rally his troops but it was too late especially as most of the 50:50 decisions were going in favour of the opposition .

This result is surely a massive wake up call to coach Donald Reid and his troops. No side can miss so many early tackles and hope to win matches.

No doubt the players will claim that too many key players away at the same time and they were surprised by the competence and speed of the opposition threequarters.

Rarely in this Division, other than Howe of Fife last season, do you see a side that are capable of handling and running so effectively.

There is a lot of work to be done on the training pitch this week before Accies play, bottom of the table Hillfoots, next Saturday at New Anniesland.

This article was originally posted on 7-Sep-2008, 10:14 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 7-Sep-2008, 10:56.