Team spirit helps Shire pull through
STRATHMORE .........................................17 PERTHSHIRE ............................................32
The team spirit and togetherness on display against Strathmore was particularly pleasing for head coach Alan Clark.
Perthshire showed both their class and battling qualities to pick up a National League 3 bonus point boost on the road last weekend.
Tries from Aidan Watson, Angus Walker, Adrian Venter and Kieran Ramsay - Calum Bruce added the extras with the boot - made for a productive and enjoyable trip to Inchmacoble Park.
“There is always a wee bit extra in the Strathmore game because of the locality of it,” Clark said.
“I’d seen them in pre-season and thought they were a strong outfit. Despite their league position, we were pretty wary of them.
“But our guys were fantastic and are really growing into being a decent squad.
“There is a lot of team spirit about them and that is what helped pull us through on Saturday.
“We went a score down after a minute but there is a resilience in this squad that I’ve not seen quite as much in the last few seasons.
“Whenever we gave away a score, we bounced straight back.
“There was a 20 minute period in the second half where things could have gone either way for us but there was a determination to win, rather than not lose.”
The win followed an agonising lastminute defeat to West of Scotland the week prior - a game where Shire had also performed well.
The Eagles sit seventh in the table and now there is a home test against secondfrom-bottom Greenock Wanderers to look forward to.
Clark said: “We had put in an excellent performance against West of Scotland and got beat in the last minute. That happens sometimes. If we had won that one we would be sitting another place up the table, so it shows you the fine margins.
“But we still took two points out of that game and then it was into a key part of the season for us.
“We’ve taken five points from Strathmore and now have Greenock this weekend, who seem to be struggling a little bit.
“We’ll look for a performance again. I’m expecting a performance because we’ve been good in the last three or four weeks.
“What we’re seeing in our league is that things can go either way, perhaps with the exception of Lasswade.
“There is a long way to go. Two games will finish the first half of the season and then we can take stock and see where we’re going to be.”
Shire’s game against Greenock at the North Inch kicks-off at the earlier time of 12.30pm and that may see a couple of players miss out.
But Clark still expects to be able to name a strong squad with every intention of keeping the positive momentum flowing.
“We had no particular injuries after Saturday,” Clark confirmed.
“Mat Rae went off in the West of Scotland game but had a bit of a Lazarus recovery to play against Strathmore.
“We are going to be missing a couple due to work commitments because of the early kick-off, but you contend with that.
“And we have good players who can come in from the seconds.”