Villagers are out

Feb 14 2008

UDDINGSTON crashed out of the Scottish Hydro-Electric Plate Plate at the first hurdle on Saturday when they lost to a well-organised Carrick side in Maybole.

When Uddingston won the toss, they elected to play against a strong wind in a bid to contain their hosts and use the elements in the second half.

When half-time arrived, this looked to be working in their favour, with the only score of the half a 28th-minute penalty slotted by Carrick’s Ewan McGregor.

With only a 3-0 deficit to claw back, things looked good for Uddingston in the opening 10 minutes of the second half but lineouts were letting them down and on several occasions Carrick were able to break out of defence.

Having watched Uddingston struggle to clear in the first half by kicking into the wind, Carrick used a more direct approach by running out of defence before setting up their centres to cut through the Villagers’ cover.

This forced Uddingston to play a lot of the game around their own 22, and an inevitable mistake was made in 50 minutes, allowing Carrick’s Gary Thomson to score in the corner.

McGregor’s conversion attempt was wide but Carrick led 8-0.

In 68 minutes, a similar series of errors saw Carrick extend their lead when, after robbing the Villagers of the ball 25 metres out, Thomson ran straight through several missed tackles to score at the posts.

McGregor’s conversion put Carrick 15-0 in front.

Uddingston were rewarded with a consolation score in injury-time.

Good pressure had allowed the pack to drive to within three metres of Carrick’s line before the home defence stopped them, forcing a ruck.

Uddingston again lost possession in the ruck but, as Carrick fed the ball back for their scrum-half to clear, the ball crossed the line and William Irvine pounced to score.

Uddingston’s next scheduled fixture is the re-arranged Scottish Hydro-Electric West League Division Two match against Hughenden at Bothwell Castle Policies on Saturday, February 23. Kick-off is 3pm.