Costlydefeat leavesbiggar chasingtitle

Small margins can often decide titles, and on Saturday there were several that went against Biggar in their quest for promotion from Tennent’s National League One.

The Lanarkshire side were 10 seconds away from a victory against Heriot’s Blues that would have put them top by two points, and with a game in hand.

Instead, a last-gasp try gave Blues a 19-17 win, and Gala’s similarly late win against Melrose resulted in Biggar dropping down to third in the table, a point behind them, and six behind Heriot’s.

Biggar play Gala on Friday in a game that they simply cannot afford to lose if they are still to hold onto their step-up dream.

In fact, the Hartree Mill side must win all of their remaining games, and hope that Heriot’s slip up somewhere in the rest of their fixtures.

The match itself had a lot to offer – disallowed tries for both sides, a yellow card, a red card and a last-gasp winning try by Heriots hooker Danny Dineen.

Biggar opened the scoring in 20 minutes, with hooker Ewan Stewart dotting down and Euan Bogle converting for 7-0.

Bogle thought he had scored shortly afterwards, but the‘try’was ruled out for a forward pass.

However, a penalty advantage had been given, and that stood, so Bogle slotted it for a 10-0 half-time lead.

Dineen scored for Heriot’s early in the second half, with Graham Wilson converting, reducing the gap to 10-7.

A number of penalties awarded against Heriot’s saw lock forward Callum Marshall sin-binned.

Biggar took advantage, with Stewart scoring his second try, and Bogle converting, for 17-7.

Dominic Martin replied with a try for Heriot’s, converted by Wilson.

Biggar were permanently reduced to 14 when Craig Borthwick was sent off, the lock accused of catching Max Oliver on the head.

That forced Biggar onto the defensive, and a penalty conceded for ‘sealing off’gave Heriot’s one last chance.

Unfortunately for Biggar, the ball squirted out the back of the last scrum, giving Dineen the chance to snatch the win.

Biggar must now pick themselves back up for a floodlit match against Gala on Friday night (7.30pm kick-off ).

Meanwhile, Hamilton grabbed a much-needed 27-26 win at Glasgow Academicals in National League 2.