Livi miss chance to secure first win
Big Almond Park crowd silenced by Dalziel’s display
Livingston slumped to their second defeat of the season as they fell 23-10 at home to Dalziel in a National League Division Three clash.
The visitors started the brighter of the two sides and notched the game’s first points when Andrew Glover converted a penalty after a neat counter-attacking passage from Dalziel.
The Motherwell side continued to dominate, but were hit themselves on a counter-attack that led to Livi scoring what would be their only try of the match.
Dalziel looked likely to score themselves but spilled the ball with the home side being awarded a scrum on the fivemetre line which ultimately led to fly-half Kerr Anderson launching a kick into the opposition 22.
From the resulting line-out, the ball was fed along the backs.
A burst of speed from Dean Edwards took him through the heart of the defence before he passed to full- back Ian Simmonds who ran in for a try that was converted by Anderson to give Livi a 7-3 advantage.
Shortly afterwards that lead was extended thanks to the boot of Anderson, who made it 10-3 thanks to a penalty.
The lead didn’t last long, however, as Dalziel piled the pressure on to the Livi defence, which eventually proved too much as Dalziel clinched their own line-out just five metres out and proceeded to bulldoze their way across the line with Andrew Bowles touching down. Glover’s conversion brought the scores level.
It was the full-back’s boot that would have the final say of the first half as he gave his side the lead with a penalty to make sure they went into the interval with their noses in front at 13-10.
Having battled valiantly in the opening 40 minutes, Livingston appeared to play with more freedom after the break and will be viewing the second half as a missed opportunity.
Centre Dan Watterson was held up just shy of the line as Livi went searching for a second try that would never come.
However, Dalziel extended their lead, very much against the run of play, as the clearance was hooked up the park with the visitors taking the line-out.
The ball was secured by hooker Bowles, who darted his way untouched to score under the posts, giving Glover the easiest of conversions to make it a 10-point game at 20-10 to the away side.
Livingston continued to press for another score but their cause was not helped by the number of stoppages with all their efforts coming to nothing.
Flanker Ross Barclay had the sizeable Almond Park crowd cheering on one particular break out,but he knocked on just short of the line. From the scrum, the visitors managed to kick down the field and won themselves a penalty for a high tackle,which they converted to make the score 23- 10 and effectively deliver the final nail in the coffin for Livingston, who never looked like turning the game around from then.
They will be looking to grab their first victory of the 2015-16 season on Saturday when they make the trip south to face the Dumfries Saints.