Stirling earn first victory on the road
County men are made to battle hard in Edinburgh
Edinburgh Acc .23 Stirling County 31 Stirling County were made to battle hard for their first Tennent’s Premiership away win of the season, with hosts Edinburgh Accies giving as good as they got in an attempt to secure their first points of the season.
At 19-5 up at the interval, it looked like County might run away with things after the break, but Accies fought back and indeed led 20-19 at one point before the Bridgehaugh side came through.
“Credit to Accies, they came into this one with a game plan and played very well at times,” said County coach Eddie Pollock.
“The way we defended for 10 minutes after half-time was not good enough, but I thought after that the guys stepped up to the mark and the guys coming off the bench made a big difference. There are no easy games in this league, especially away from home, and the guys really dug in to get us through this one.”
County opened the scoring in just about their first foray into the Accies’ half. An attempted clearance kick by the home side was charged down and stand-off Andrew Goudie was the man to pounce on the loose ball and run in for a try. The same man converted and it was 7-0.
Just after the 20-minute mark, Accies got themselves on the scoreboard. Winger Robbie Kent and skipper Jamie Sole combined well down the left to get their team into the County 22 and when the ball was shipped right, winger Cammy Gray put in a neat grubber kick. Centre Robert Wilson read the kick and dived on it to score. After that try, Accies seemed to grow in confidence and had a lot of possession leading up to the half-hour mark, but, credit to the County defence, they stood firm. And two tries in the space of a few minutes stunned the Raeburn Place outfit. Firstly winger County play their opening Scottish Cup under the Bridgehaugh lights on Friday when Glasgow Hawks are the visitors. Stirling reached the final last season, going down to Melrose in the final at Murrayfield and will be hoping for more success. Friday’s match kicks off at 7.30pm. www.theoff sideline.com adding the extras and it was 26-20 to the visitors with a four-try bonus.
With 13 minutes to play, Mill kicked a penalty to make it 26-23 and set up a tense finale.
However, County made sure of the away win in the 75th minute, with replacement winger Logan Trotter going over in the corner for try number five.
Stirling County: Robertson; Sorbie, Magarvie, Hughes, Brogan; Goudie, Jericevich; Chies, Kennedy, Walker, Yarrow, C Henderson, Burr, MacDonald, Mackie. Subs: Bryce, Holborn, Bundy, Arnott, Trotter.