THE Glasgow Hawks' onward surge in the BT Premiership stepped up a gear yesterday as they shunted Stirling County ruthlessly aside 48-5 in the nearest they have come so far this season to the perfect performance.

They were always in charge of the match from the ninth minute when Steven Duffy slipped through the home defence to set up a try for Eric Milligan. Seven further tries later, they had completed the job.

Mark Sitch was singled out by Bob McKillop, the Stirling coach, as the single most influential player on the Hawks side and it was entirely justified that he should have been the man who broke the home resistance with the second and third tries, both 20-yard run-ins.

The Hawks had the bonus point wrapped up by half time, Steven Biggart, the scrum half, slipping round the blind side to put Iain Kennedy, the centre in for the score.

Despite Richard Mill finishing a break from Ben Addison, the Stirling full back, the second half was one-way traffic with Richard McKnight, Gordon McFadyen, Murray Strang, Ally McLay all getting touchdowns

This article was posted on 30-Oct-2005, 09:17 by Hugh Barrow.