Scottish Hydro West League Division 1

Strathclyde Police 8 - 10 Paisley

Paisley RFC Finally had something to cheer about on Saturday after sealing victory away to Strathclyde Police

Strathclyde Police undoubtedly started the game the stronger team with their excellent mauling from lineouts, driving Paisley back into their own twenty two metre area repeatedly in the first ten minutes. Even though Strathclyde had two five metre scrums in the last third of the pitch the Paisley defence held strong and knocked back what was thrown at them.

The match then started to swing in Paisley's favour with some excellent rucking and mauling from the Paisley fowards, this then allowed the backline to have a run at the Strathclyde defence which struggled to cope with centres Zane Grey & Ryan McCready, who on seperate occasions broke the defensive line but unfortunately could not finish off with any points for Paisley.

It took close to thirty minutes for Paisley to break the deadlock with a extremely well taken thirty yard penalty from stand in fly half Gordon Powrie, this made up for two previously unsuccesful efforts he had prior. Powrie replaced veteran fly half Gavin Newlands who suffered a calf strain during the week.

Paisley fowards held the ball well for the last ten minutes of the half with some grit determination, most noteably by second row Billy Milligan who was only playing in his second match for the club. This allowed Paisley lead at half-time 3-0.

The second half started with Strathclyde coming out all guns blazing, pushing Paisley deep into their own half. The Strathclyde maul was proving difficult for Paisley to halt. This onslaught of rucks and mauls was beginning to put more and more pressure on the defensive line and if it was not for Paisley's Paul Reid putting his body on the line with some outstanding last ditch tackles then the scoreline might have been different.

Although the defence was holding out well for Paisley it was about to get much worse when flanker Ryan Rawes received a yellow card for being perssistantly offside, this left Paisley with fourteen against fifteen for ten minutes.

Strathclyde then created wave after wave of attack on the Paisley try line, still the defence stood tall and were given a break when flanker Andrew Judge pounced on a loose ball which was then cleared away. This was a welcomed rest for Paisley but only for a moment as Rawes returned to the pitch, hooker Paul Reid was then given a yellow card for his part in a scuffle with the Strathclyde fly half. Paisley captain Mike Somerville made it known to the referee that he thought both players involved should have received bookings for their part.

This left Paisley having to fight it out on their own try line again. Only after receiving a very fortunate penalty were Paisley able to clear towards the opposing half. The match the swung in Paisleys favour when, after some excellent link up play between second row Al Brodie and centre Ryan McCready, McCready stretched the lead to 8-0 with a dramatic leap for the line. Powrie converted the kick to give Paisley a 10-0 lead with five minutes remaining.

All credit for the try must go to Welsh prop Dan Witchell whose sneaky steal from a Strathclyde ruck in their own twenty two metre area gave the platform from which the try was built from. Strathclyde responded imediately with a penalty, taking the score to 10-3.

It was all about to go from bad to worse as the Strathclyde fowards powered over the Paisley try line to take the score to 10-8. Fortunately the Strathclyde fly half missed the conversion after shaving the post. The referee then brought proceedings to a end with Paisley coming out 10-8 winners.

After the match winger Simon Knott added "Its great to finally have a victory under our belts, after the recent run of bad results this is exactly what we need. It shows what we can do when we have one of our stronger teams out."