Paisley are in seventh heaven
Victory for Buddies in first home game for seven weeks
Paisley..............18 Cumbernauld....12
Craig Ritchie
Paisley returned home to winning ways as they took on Cumbernauld in what was the first game at The Anchor in seven weeks.
The Buddies, having not played in three weeks, took time to get back into the swing of things and the well-drilled Cumbernauld pack took advantage of this in the opening exchanges.
Paisley kicked off and immediately went about showing their defensive might, knocking back Cumbernauld with every tackle.
However discipline seemed to be the issue as penalty after penalty from the referee in the favour of Cumbernauld pushed Paisley further and further up the pitch.
And that’s where the first Cumbernauld try came from as Paisley gave away the penalty for hands in the ruck.
Cumbernauld elected to kick to touch and the lineout followed.
The drive from the forwards was matched by the Paisley pack so the ball was played out to the backs.
The Cumbernauld stand-off beat two Paisley defenders to score under the posts.
Paisley came straight back, looking to cut the Cumbernauld lead back down.
An infringement from the Cumbernauld pack in the ruck resulted in a challenging kick at goal for Euan Stuart.
With the three points on offer, Stuart stepped up and made the score 7-3 for Cumbernauld.
As the game swung backward and forward, the Cumbernauld forwards were making the most of the countless penalties Paisley were conceding.
Paisley gave away a penalty on their own line after defending another wave of Cumbernauld attacks.
The visitors elected to take the scrum and, with a nice bit of play down the blind side, they scored again.
With the conversion missed it was 12-3 to Cumbernauld.
However, this was nowhere near the end of the action in the half or the game.
Paisley suddenly woke up from their three-week slumber and started to take the game to Cumbernauld.
A little chip kick from Stuart deep into the Cumbernauld danger zone resulted in Paddy O’Donnell looking like he would be in for the try until he was cynically tripped by the Cumbernauld winger.
The referee went to his pocket for the first, but not the last, time during the game.
Yellow was the colour and Paisley had an opportunity to turn the screw.
Unfortunately the accuracy of the Paisley attack fell short with a mixture of knock-ons and poor decisions leading to the breakdown of key moves.
They finally clicked however as the ball was moved quickly between the forwards and backs, resulting in a first try at first team level for Sam Mackinnon.
The conversion was missed but the score was now 12-8 for Cumbernauld.
Paisley continued their barrage on the Cumbernauld line in the minutes leading up to half time.
The pressure finally told and the referee went to his pocket again, giving the Cumbernauld number nine a yellow for slowing the ball down.
Paisley came firing out after half time, determined to make up for a lacklustre first period. Forwards and backs were interlinking with a renewed vigour.
As the play moved forward into the Cumbernauld 22, second row forward John Mclellan spotted a large gap in the Cumbernauld defence.
The lineout specialist didn’t need a second opportunity as he darted through to score a try under the posts.
The conversion was slotted by Stuart to make the score 15-12 for Paisley.
The drama wasn’t over, however.
And the referee still had a few cards up his sleeve as Paisley continued to press up the pitch.
A slight indiscretion at the ruck resulted in another yellow card, which was quickly escalated to a red upon further inquiry from the player in question.
Paisley knew the last 25 minutes of the game were going to be some of the toughest so far this season.
The Buddies dug in, continuing to attack and push their opponents back.
Finally, a was penalty awarded to Paisley in the Cumbernauld half.
Stuart stepped up again and slotted the tough penalty and increase Paisley’s lead to 18-12.
As the final whistle loomed, the penalty count against Paisley began to increase, with Cumbernauld missing a kick at goal and in the final play electing to go for the lineout.
The final whistle went – and a massive sigh of relief was heard at The Anchor.