Clark hails ‘best ever’ Shire performance
Victory eases relegation fears
PERTHSHIRE ............................ 60 GREENOCK WANDERERS ...... 10
The final whistle sounded, the sun was splitting the sky and Alan Clark was beaming with pride.
There was no doubt in the head coach’s voice that this was the best Perthshire performance in his time in charge.
Home players could perhaps have been excused for looking over their shoulder at potential relegation bother.
But a discipline and focus “not seen for years” set the Eagles on the correct path for success and a huge 60-10 win.
The stakes were high and a large support had ventured down to the North Inch for the visit of Greenock Wanderers.
And the local fans were celebrating on the sidelines throughout an enthralling first half of running rugby.
Tries from Kyle MacKinnon, Jonny Armitt, Aidan Watson, Angus Walker and Dan Rae - three converted by Calum Bruce - had opened up a considerable lead.
There was, however, no intention of taking the foot off the gas and more of the same followed after the break.
Kieran Ramsay and Calum Chalmers both crossed the whitewash on two occasions, while skipper Mat Rae also managed to get in on the act. Two conversions were added from the boot of Watson.
This was a massively enjoyable afternoon and all but secures Shire’s spot in the national leagues for next season.
“I would go as far as saying that was the best performance I’ve seen from a Perthshire team since I’ve been in charge,” said delighted head coach Clark.
“It was fantastic and there are not enough superlatives you can throw at it. It was pretty impressive.
“The manner of the win was probably the most important thing.
“We have done a lot of work in training over the last three weeks after we got beat down at Greenock.
“A lot of work on mindset and culture, less about the actual skills. On Saturday, we celebrated small wins, being a team.
“To get the bonus point - and deny Greenock a bonus - was fairly massive.
“Our league position was some of the motivation but we didn’t talk about winning.
“We talked about what we needed to do. You can put a lot of pressure on guys by talking about relegation battles.
“I think everyone was aware of it, we just tried not to focus on it and made sure we did things right.
“From the first whistle, we managed that. It was all about us on Saturday.”
Shire now sit 10 points clear of Greenock and five clear of second-from-bottom Ardrossan Academicals.
“We’re not quite confirmed safe yet,” Clark noted. “There are a lot of permutations that could happen.
“It’s still in our own hands. We essentially need one point on Saturday to make ourselves safe.
“Everything is sitting in our favour but you can never take your eye off the ball.
“There would be a bit of relief in staying up and it would also indicate what we have done over the last month or so.
“It will enable us to really start planning for the future and we can focus on moving ahead.
“But we’ll literally be focusing on the process we need to go through to make sure we get that point.”
Clark, of course, is hoping for more than a solitary point when Strathmore visit the North Inch this Saturday (3pm).
“Strathmore got the win against a strong West of Scotland team at the weekend,” he said.
“They needed that win to secure their safety, which they have done, so the pressure is off for them.
“We beat them up at their place earlier in the season and we now have some momentum off of last week.”