Hawks grounded by brave County

Jan 21 2009 by Alan Rennie, Stirling Observer Wednesday

COUNTY are clinging on to Premiership One by their fingernails – but their fans’ nails will be bitten down to the quick if there are more thrillers like this one.

Even Hawks coach Peter Wright conceded later that Stirling merited their narrow victory. But Stirling made life excruciatingly hard for themselves, especially in the closing minutes.

The visitors shocked Stirling in just the third minute with a solo try from elusive full-back Craig Gossman. He’s the son of Jim and nephew of Bryan, both former West and Scotland players.

From that moment on, County tightened up their defence and, to be honest, Hawks never really looked like breaking through again, no matter how hard they tried.

County came close to an immediate response when Robbie McGowan charged down a clearance kick and Brian Archibald was first to react, snatching the loose ball and spinning over the line. But Referee Andrew McMenemy disallowed the score, claiming Archibald hadn’t grounded the ball properly.

Stirling were playing against gusting wind and rain that slanted diagonally across the pitch towards the corner nearest the turnstiles.

And the pack weren’t getting it together at this stage, stand-off Rainey squandering a chance to increase their lead after County were penalised for dangerously wheeling round the set-piece.

Brian Archibald took a knock and was replaced by Ross Aitken, who moved to the wing with Ben Addison switching to outside centre.

Young Danny Gilmour’s move to inside centre had an immediate impact. In the next move, he made a fabulous break and then showed great strength to shrug off despairing tackles for a fine try which Jonny Hope converted.

It was all-square and County further re-shuffled the side, one pre-planned, the other not.

Garry Mountford came on to give Wilba Davies a breather while Johnny Graham, called into the side that day after Alex Moffat declared him unfit even for the bench, was called into action after hooker Andy Simpson was led off in agony.

Mountford made an immediate impact and this lifted the spirits of County who were to stay on top for the rest of the half.

Danny Gilmour was impressing everyone with his strength and clever angles of running and the biggest surprise was that Stirling didn’t build up a substantial lead at this stage.

However, the breakthrough was eventually to come in the third minute of injury time before half-time. Garry Mountford charged down a clearance kick, regained possession, and was shunted over by his forward colleagues.

Leading 12-7 with the elements in their favour going into the second half, things looked good for Stirling but there was an early blow when Bruce McFarlane took a nasty knock on the eye and had to be replaced by Kevin Bryce.

Wilba Davies came back on for Garry Mountford but this took away some of the oomph from County’s pack and the Hawks started to build up a head of steam.

A Rainey penalty took the score to 12-10 with 20 minutes left and a fraught last quarter ensued.

During this period, the whole County pack was unbelievable and there were plenty of other defensive heroics, notably from wing Ross Aitken one of whose tackles led to a pressure-relieving penalty for County.

Fewer passes and more box kicks from Graham Calder possibly would have made life a bit easier but, as it was, Stirling found themselves under siege.

In the closing 10 minutes, the pressure told and referee McMenemy yellow carded Danny Gilmour and, after his second call-up from the bench, Garry Mountford.

This meant it was 13 against 15, or 13 against 16 as a section of the home support clearly felt – convinced that the referee was favouring Hawks when penalising indiscretions.

Some may have been recalling the Ayr game at Bridgehaugh last season when the visitors sneaked a win in injury time only after Mark Hunter had been sin-binned by the same ginger-headed whistler.

Somehow County held out for a memorable win and there were lengthy celebrations in the clubhouse afterwards.

Danny Gilmour, classiest player on the park by a mile, garnered five votes to win the John Graham (Metals) Ltd man of the match award. All the forwards could have merited the prize and Colin Eadie and Garry Mountford received a vote apiece.

Scorers: Stirling - tries - Gilmour, Mountford; conv - Hope. Hawks - try - Gossman, conv - Rainey; pen - Rainey.

Stirling County – J Hope; G Lindsay, D Gilmour, B Archibald, B Addison; R McGowan, G Calder; M Hunter, A Simpson, W Davies, B McFarlane, G Gilchrist, T Clarke, C Eadie and C Deacons. Reps – G Mountford, J Graham, K Bryce, R Aitken (all used) and J Hill.

Glasgow Hawks – C Gossman; J Wright, B Mohr, I Noble, S Gordon; M Rainey, P Boyer; G Strain, G Mories, N Cox, N Caddell, A Kelly, M Whittleston, G Harkness and G Strang. Reps – J Maclay, G Francis, A Maxwell, G MacDonald and E Morrison.

Referee – Andrew McMenemy, Gala.

Stirling County RFC is grateful to main sponsors Simpson Donald and Ondeo Industrial Solutions for their support.

Last Saturday’s results mostly went Stirling’s way and there are now half a dozen clubs in the relegation shakedown.

One of them is West of Scotland and that’s who Stirling County will be playing at Burnbrae this Saturday, with both their 1st and 2nd XVs. Travelling fans should check the kick-off times which were under discussion between the clubs as we went to press.

Other key fixtures this week are Watsonians v Edinburgh Accies, Melrose v Hawks and Hawick v Currie.

County are away to National League Division Three Lenzie in the fourth round of the Hydro Electric Cup on February 14. They beat National Div One side Cambuslang.

A win for Stirling will bring a fifth round tie at home against either Ellon (Premiership Three) or Trinity Accies (National Three).