Hamilton enjoy good start to season with win over Musselburgh.

Sep 2 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON opened their Scottish Hydro Premier 3 season with a narrow win over Musselburgh at Stoneyhill.

An exciting encounter went right to the wire before the Bulls secured four points.

Hamilton started well and were soon pressing forward through Richie Maxton.

Owen McLeish put an early penalty out to touch and although Musselburgh’s Euan O’Brien stole the ball, a fumble gave possession right back to the Bulls in a scrum.

John Selfridge picked up at the back and fed Stevie Turnbull, who raced away before kicking ahead.

When Musselburgh were penalised again and McLeish put the ball out near the corner flag, Maxton secured good ball and the forward drove towards the line where Selfridge went over, with McLeish converting for 7-0.

The lead was short-lived, however. Musselburgh surged towards the line and, as the referee signalled advantage, Brian Walls attempted a drop-goal which crashed off the crossbar, with the official pulling play back for a penalty and this time the scrum-half made no mistake for 7-3.

Walls had a chance to pull the score back to a single point but sent his penalty attempt wide.

Musselburgh’s Fraser Sutherland and O’Brien gathered the ball from McLeish’s restart and took the game once more towards the Hamilton line, where desperate tackling led to another penalty, with Walls this time converting for 7-6.

Hamilton attacked through Turnbull and despite Calum Crawford appearing to have slapped a loose ball backwards, the referee judged it to have been forwards.

Musselburgh took possession wide and were only prevented from going over by a fine tackle from Andy Macfie.

However, Hamilton were penalised again as they tried to clear and Walls stepped up to give Musselburgh a 9-7 lead.

This gave Musselburgh heart and they attacked Hamilton’s line, which stood firm.

Walls was given another kicking opportunity and took the score to 12-7, which they held onto until the interval.

Walls was causing problems for Hamilton and early in the half slotted a penalty from half-way for 15-7.

McLeish launched a penalty downfield but Musselburgh returned it, where a penalty miss by Walls got the Bulls off the hook.

Hamilton regrouped and moved upfield, where a penalty award of their own allowed McLeish to pull the score back to 15-10.

Musselburgh responded immediately with a Walls penalty, stretching their lead to 18-10.

A rare run from Ross Inglis had the hosts on the back foot and Turnbull and Selfridge took things on before a well-placed ball to McLeish set him up for a drop-goal and a scoreline of 18-13.

Walls struck with two more penalties for 24-13 and with 15 minutes remaining things didn’t look good for Hamilton. However, Maxton caught a lineout and the forwards surrounded him and they drove for the line, with Turnbull dropping on the ball and McLeish converting from the touchline for 24-20.

Hamilton continued to attack but Musselburgh appeared to be coping. Then, from a scrum just short of the Hamilton line, Selfridge picked up and burst free, flipping the ball out wide to Chris Stannage and the youngster took off down the pitch to score. McLeish converted with the last kick of the ball for 27-24.

As Hamilton’s new pitch beds in, the Bulls are on the road again on Saturday when they face Ardrossan Accies at Memorial Fielsd.