Having lost their first two games of the season, Garnock lead West 1 having gone on an impressive ten game unbeaten run. Saturdays 63-8 victory is all the more impressive as Kilmarnock have drawn against Greenock and ran Glens close in the past few weeks, so this certainly puts a marker in the sand to the other title contenders.
Scotland's game of the day was undoubtedly at The Bearyards when it was 3rd v 2nd in what sounds like a tough and uncompromising contest. The Predictor Challenge had Glens as strong favourites, but this one had all the makings of being a close contest, with the winners being guaranteed second place.
The match report suggests little in it, with both Clubs having their spell of pressure. At half time, East Kilbride led 10 – 5, and with 20 minutes to go, it was Glens who had the advantage, 18-16. Who would end the day in second spot was very much in the balance, but it was EK who grabbed the victory with three minutes of play left, leaving with a 23-18 victory.
Greenock followed up last weeks big win against Cambuslang, with a potentially awkward game at Stewartry, and coming through this test with a 26-3 victory means they are now on the same points as Glens.
There’s five points between the top four, with Glens and Greenock having a game in hand on both Garnock and EK. It’s all to play for in the title race and single promotion spot.
This weekend Greenock are in the final of the West Shield, whilst Glens and Garnock both have the weekend off, so it’s a chance for EK to move into pole position when they host fifth place Annan.
Annan had a strong start to the season, but in recent weeks they’ve gone off the boil a bit, so this weekends home defeat to Strathendrick as good as confirms the end of their title aspirations.
East Kilbride won their first encounter with Annan this season, and recent results suggests they’ll be favourites again this weekend. Annan however are only one of two Clubs to have beaten Garnock this season, so they should not be under-estimated.
The title race is now a four horse contest, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to play for in the rest of the table. It just appears that many people are unsure of that they are actually playing for.
There’s always a bit of the unknown when it comes to how many Clubs go down in West 1 due to mechanics of relegating Clubs from one National league to three Regional leagues. In theory we can have no West Clubs coming down, or we could have three. But this years we have two further variables which appear far from clear.
West League reconstruction – it was announced last season that the West leagues would move back to 10 team leagues from 12 – but some Clubs say they are not clear information about how this will be achieved.
Super 6 / National league reconstruction – no-one yet knows how this one will pan out, and how it will impact the Regional leagues.
Anyway enough of this pontificating and let’s get back to nitty gritty of weekly league business and what we do know.
The Predictor Odds had Annan down as strong favourites against Strathendrick, but a 10-8 victory for Endrick helps them recover from the hangover of their recent visit to Stewartry. Despite their big loss at Stewartry a couple of weeks ago, the win over Annan represents their third league victory in their last four games and moves them up to ninth place.
By a strange twist of fate, the Club Strathendrick swapped places with are their guests this weekend – Kilmarnock. It could prove to be a crucial game in the relegation battle, so it should be a cracker.
Enricks narrow win over Annan goes with Kilmarnocks narrow defeat to Annan a couple of weeks ago, so there’s probably not much in it. Kilmarnock have the better points difference, both scoring more and conceding fewer, whilst they also have six try bonus points compared to Strathendricks two. However, Endrick have five league wins to Kilmarnocks two. It’s looks like being a close one, so for us home advantage will be the difference.
Of the two other relegation contenders, the Dalziel game was off at the weekend due to a waterlogged pitch, whilst Cumnock lost 20 points to 7 on their visit to Cambuslang. This win gives Cambuslang a bit of breathing space, putting them 15 points ahead of Cumnock and 7 ahead of Kilmarnock, ending a four game losing streak for the Coats Park men.
With only two wins so far this season, each game is becoming crucial to Cumnocks survival in West 1. This weekend they welcome sixth placed Stewartry, who themselves aren’t exactly setting the league on fire, but with 5 wins, they are clear of Cumnock. However, as we mentioned before league restructuring makes it unclear how many will be relegated this season, so Stewartry can’t be complacent - realistically it’s a must win for both Clubs.
Stewartry have lost three of their last four, which on first glance suggests a bit of a dip in performances and, therefore possibly confidence, but if we dig a bit deeper, we see that these defeats have been against Garnock, East Kilbride and Greenock, so no disgrace there.
On average, there’s not much between them when it comes to points conceded, however there is a big difference in points scored. Stewartry are scoring on 29 points a game on average (22 excluding the Endrick game), whilst Cumnock are managing only 11, so on this basis, we reckon Stewartry will have too much for Cumnock.
Dalziel and Cumnock are getting separated at the foot of the table, but there’s not much between the mid-table Clubs, only 11 points between Annan in fifth and Kilmarnock in tenth. A couple of wins and even a few bonus points would make a big difference, so games likes this weekends mid-table clash between Irvine v Cambuslang take on added interest.
This is 8th v 7th with only two points between them, though Irvine do have four games in hand. They’ve got five wins each, but Irvine’s points difference is significantly better. Irvine’s have lost only one game at home this season (Garnock), whilst Cambuslang have won only one away from home - this looks like another home win for Irvine.
In addition to the four league games this weekend, we also have the West Regional Shield final at Scotstoun Stadium between Greenock Wanderers and Dalziel. Dalziel have struggled in the league this season, but they have done well in the Shield with wins against Wigtownshire, Oban Lorne and Kilmarnock. Greenock however are scoring on average 45 points a game in their league challenge whilst they claimed a victory over Allan Glens in the semi-finals. It feels like a a comfortable win for Greenock, but there’ll be no pressure on Dalziel, so here’s hoping they come out with guns blazing and make a contest of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment