East Kilbride 43 Annan 10

East Kilkbride (EK) spent the opening minutes of this match camped inside their own half. Annan, however, did not take advantage of their position and possession during this period, and this was exemplified when their normally reliable kicker miss-hit a penalty conversion attempt from in front of the EK posts. Having sustained pressure during the opening minutes it was EK that opened the scoring. Rory Blackwood's long distance penalty attempt rebounded off the crossbar, Annan tried to run the ball out from their 22, it was turned over by EK, moved effectively from left to right into the hands of Evan Martin who outflanked the opposing cover to touch down for an unconverted try. At this stage the game was only 7 minutes old. After a frantic opening things began to quieten down. Annan reduced EK's lead with a penalty conversion on 21 minutes. The EK lead was restored two minutes later when Lewis Mcfie blasted his way through the visitors' defence to touch down between the sticks giving Rory Blackwood an easy conversion. 5 minutes later Alex Irvine ran in EK's third try. Rory Blackwood made no mistake when adding the extras. It was Annan that had the last scoring move of the game with a try close to the right touchline. This time their kicker made no mistake and added the 2 points to bring their tally to 10 against EK's 19 at the break.

EK's scrum was in dominant form as the second half opened. When Annan were penalised for collapsing the scrum close to their line EK chose to scrum again. When this offence was repeated the referee, Gregor McIntosh, awarded EK a penalty try and, with this score, the try bonus point. Shortly after this EK suffered a minor setback when a petulant act from replacement scrum half, Matthew Smith, saw him sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes allowing Rory Blackwood to spend ten minutes of the game in his preferred position, scrum half. Matthew's absence did not slow down the EK try scoring machine, however, as following forward pressure on the Annan line Ben McLean crossed for a try converted by Rory Blackwood. As the game wore on EK's domination of the match increased resulting in further scores for Richie Murray, unconverted this time, and, on full time, a try for Lucas Aitken. At this point Chris "Thunders" McLellan, making his 300th appearance for the club, was given the honour of adding the points, and he made no mistake with his conversion kick.

This was a good result for EK, and one that moved them from 7th to 4th in the SRU West League Division 1. Sadly, for Annan it leaves them anchored to the foot of the league. This is a league that has a very long middle with only 4 points separating EK from Dalziel in 7th place. This strongly emphasises why it is important for EK to to make thorough preparations for the three games to be played before the end of the season, starting with Dalziel on March 30th.

On the day EK's performance was a marked improvement on that of their game against Lenzie. When EK plays well, results follow, but when they don't they are likely to suffer. In the opening minutes of this match some of the old problems were apparent, but when they got things together and played as a team, which involves effective communication between players on the field, supporting and assisting team-mates when mistakes are made and not letting heads go down when things seem to be going against them, they are capable of beating anyone.

In this game the provision of good set piece ball thanks to strong scrummaging and clean line - out ball resulting from accurate throwing by Christopher "Thunders" McLellan and David McGiven's catch and deliver set up a good attacking platform. Ball winning on the ground for which Alex Irvine takes much credit, and generally good all round forward play to secure the loose ball gave EK the upper hand as the game progressed. In the backs the young stand-off, Ri Murphy is playing with increased confidence, Rory Blackwood kicked very well from hand and Lewis Mcfie's strong running made valuable yards to set up attacking positions.

Player of the match? There can only be one - 300 outing in an EK jersey, a man that has always given his all for the team and who rounded off his day with a conversion of the final try. Player of the match on this occasion is Christopher "Thunders" McLellan.

EK's next game is against Dalziel on March 30th at the Torrance House Arena. We cannot underestimate the importance of this game as we seek to consolidate our position in this division so, for the team, the need to keep fit and focussed on the task in hand is of great importance and, for the support, being there to encourage them with positive praise from the touchlines is what is needed to bring the season to a satisfactory conclusion.