Dalziel promotion hopes alive after hard-fought win against EK rivals

Mar 25 2009 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

DALZIEL ground out a narrow victory over East Kilbride (EK) at the weekend to reduce the gap between themselves and second-placed Dumfries to just five points, which keeps their promotion challenge on track.

The Motherwell club missed out on securing a vital bonus point, but will be relieved to have gained the win after fighting back from an early 8-0 first half deficit.

Dalziel played EK earlier this month and won a closely- fought contest 14-0.

But, after last week’s demolition of Royal High Corstorphine, the visitors were hoping to complete a more comprehensive victory this time around against their local rivals.

This never materialised as a determined, but inexperienced, EK team put Dalziel on the backfoot for most of the first half.

The home side’s handling and lines of running caused Dalziel all sorts of problems in the opening 15 minutes – with only stout defence from Dalziel keeping them at bay.

EK were rewarded for their pressure, thanks to a penalty kick from the fly half before they scored the first try of the afternoon.

Despite the referee telling both sets of players to keep their hands off the ball, the man in the middle then refused to penalise an EK home forward after he scooped the ball up and ran down the blindside unopposed to score in the corner.

Dalziel protested but the referee claimed a ruck had not been formed so the player was free to handle the ball, much to the annoyance of the Dalziel players.

The crucial turning point in the contest came just before the interval when the visitors quickly turned defence into attack.

A loose ball was pounced upon by Dalziel flanker Blake Whitehead.

The back rower broke two tackles on the half way line before showing a neat turn of speed to dive over in the corner for Dalziel’s opening try.

Lock Andy Hill, who has been in superb kicking form all season, kicked the touchline conversion to put Dalziel within a point of EK at the break.

Shortly after the restart, Hill kicked a penalty to put them ahead before both defences nullified any attacking threats for much of the second period.

As the match moved into the closing quarter, Fraser Duguid took the ball deep in his own half and after his clever kick over the EK defence was not gathered by the home scrum half, the loose ball was blocked by winger Duguid who dived on the ball as it bobbled over the tryline.

Hill again kicked the extras.

As it looked like Dalziel were set to see out the match, a speculative pass from full back Robert Simpson was intercepted by an EK player who scored under the posts.

With the conversion successful Dalziel’s lead was reduced to five points but they held on for victory despite being below par most of the afternoon.

Dalziel host Annan first and second teams at Dalziel Park this Saturday.

With four league matches now remaining, nothing other than a fifth win on the bounce will do for the first XV.

Victory for the second team would all but guarantee them promotion.