Kilmarnock 30 East Kilbride 28

Tries in the opening and closing seconds of this, the second fixture of the season between East Kilbride (EK) and Kilmarnock, gave the Bellsland side a close, home victory, but it was a game that EK could, and should, have won.

In a turgid first half which saw the referee, Ed Crick, going into his pocket on four occasions - 3 yellow cards issued to David McGivern (23rd minute), Alex Irvine (32nd minute) and Rory Blackwood (39th Minute) of EK and one red card to Kilmarnock's no. 7 (23rd minute), the home side opened the scoring while most spectators were taking their seats. Their right winger gratefully intercepted a floated pass intended for the EK left winger and ran in unopposed giving their kicker an easy conversion. EK responded 18 minutes into the game when Evan Martin touched down in the corner. The try was unconverted, leaving the lead with the home side. They extended this lead with an unconverted try on the half hour and a penalty with a minute of the half remaining.

Ten minutes into the second half a penalty, converted by Rory Blackwood, followed by an Alex Irvine try 5 minutes later took the score to 15-13 in favour of the home side. Further scoring came in the form of a penalty conversion and a converted try by the home side countered by tries from Roddy Beaton which was unconverted and another by Grant Dryburgh, following up and latching on to his own kick ahead, which was converted by George Fisher. With five minutes of the game remaining George Fisher kept a cool head to convert a penalty which gave EK a three point lead with only five minutes of the game remaining. Kilmarnock, however, capitalised as EK conceded penalties. Kilmarnock took full advantage of EK's mistakes to kick to the corner and use ball won at the line out to pressure the EK line. At one point EK turned the ball over but conceded a further penalty as they attempted to run the ball out from within their own 22. Kilmarnock made no mistake when offered this second, or was it third?, opportunity to attack and when the recycled ball was moved to the left wing he ran in unopposed to seal the match for the home side.

While EK made a creditable comeback in the second half, they made far too many mistakes as a result of which they lost a match that they could and should have won. I lost count of the number of penalties conceded and many of these were unnecessary, by which I mean that no advantage was gained, or could have been gained had the offence been undetected. The line out did not function well in the first half and though this improved in the second there was too little good clean ball. Both George Fisher and Roddy Beaton made excellent breaks in the second half but neither managed to get the ball away to supporting players. Had they done so tries would have followed. EK player of the match? This player made some scintillating breaks and when a cool head was needed to provide, what everyone in EK colours thought had to be the winning penalty conversion, he came up with the goods. This week's EK player of the match is George Fisher.

The two league points gained in this match (a try bonus and a losing bonus) moved EK up to fourth position in the Tennant's SRU West Division 1. There are 5 league matches to be played, four of which are at home with the one away fixture being against lead leaders, Ardrossan. Home wins should be enough to consolidate EK's position in the top half of the division. I have no doubt that the team has the ability to do this so long as they keep cool heads, give away fewer penalties and support each other.

Next week (20th January) EK will be at home against Annan. We won narrowly down there so we'll be looking for an improved result this time. After that it's back to Bellsland (27th January) for round one of the SRU shield. Having won one and lost one in our encounters with Kilmarnock the team will be looking for a win in this encounter.