Stirling County aim to stay out in front

Nov 13 2009 by Donald Morton, Stirling Observer Friday

STIRLING County will make an early start tomorrow (Saturday) for the trip north to face third-placed Aberdeen in Scottish Hydro Electric Premiership Division Two.

The game at Rubislaw kicks off at noon because of the Scotland international against Fiji and County will have to be wide awake to keep the home side at bay.

Aberdeen go into the game 11 points behind County and know a defeat – even at this stage of the season – could pout them out of promotion contention.

For their part, Stirling will want to stay ahead of the chasing pack – now led by Hawick where Stirling will travel on December 5.

“I was happy with the result against Kelso,” said director of rugby Eddie Pollock.

“We weren’t quite as fluent as we have been in recent weeks but our penalty count was a lot lower and the defence was good.

“The game against Aberdeen is now our main focus. If we beat them, they’ll be a long way behind and as I’ve said from the start of the season, we want to be one of two sides who pull away from the rest to ensure promotion.

“We’ve almost reached a stage where bonus points don’t matter that much – getting four points for the win is vital.”

He added: “Our next three games at Aberdeen, home to Kirkcaldy and away to Hawick are very important and it would good to come through them unscathed.”

There is good news and bad news on the injury front at Bridgehaugh. Kiwi Benji Bersanti, who missed last Saturday’s 26-0 win over KElso, is back in contention – but young centre Danny Gilmour will miss the match with a hamstring injury.

One massive boost for County is the return to action tomorrow (Saturday) of influential forward Craig Deacons. Craig dislocated his ankle back in September and will make his comeback in the 2nd XV match at home against Dundee.