Endrick lose in stoppage time

Annan snatch points with two late tries

Strathendrick..19 Annan ............. 27 Saturday’s league match at Fintry clearly fell into the ‘game of two halves’ category.

Endrick went ahead after ten minutes and with three first-half tries were in a comfortable position at the break.

However, Annan stormed back in the second half.

Endrick held on well, conceding only one try midway through the half, but the visitors scored twice in stoppage time to take the points.

With the slight breeze behind them Endrick took the game into the visitors’ half early on but were faced with a well organised defence. Their first scoring chance was a long penalty which drifted past. They went ahead after nine minutes when an Annan mistake was pounced upon and Craig Mundell ran in to score out wide.

Endrick’s pack caused all sorts of problems for the visitors and after 22 minutes they got their reward with a pushover try, with James Cuthbertson getting the touchdown. Kyle Campbell added the extras. Annan responded quickly and their stand-off opened their account with a penalty from 25 metres.

The home side continued to have the better of the exchanges, with their pack dominant, and just before the break they drove over for Ewan MacKay to score a try converted by Kyle Campbell.

There was still time in the first half for one more incident of note. Angus North met a long clearance kick as an Annan player followed up. From the touchline it appeared that both jumped for the ball but the Annan player’s impetus took him above North and he crashed to the ground heavily.

The Endrick player was sin–binned and Annan scored with the penalty but the first half ended with Endrick leading by 13 points.

A man short for the first 10 minutes of the second half, Endrick were forced to defend and they did so successfully.

Even when they were back at full strength they were under the cosh from their rampant visitors.

Nevertheless they defended soundly and 23 minutes had gone before Annan scored.

Their stand off then added the extras with a fine kick from near the touchline.

That took the score to 19-13 and Endrick preserved that lead until the game went into stoppage time. Then the roof fell in.

Annan finally broke through to score their second try near the corner flag and the stand–off again kicked a beauty to put his side a single point ahead.

Endrick’s restart kick was booted back into their half and cleanly fielded by Sam Greenock, who had played an outstanding game.

He might have kicked to touch but opted to start an attack from deep. His pass was intercepted by the only Annan player in the Endrick half, who took the gift and ran unchallenged to score at the posts, thus deriving Endrick of a losers’ bonus point.