Ardrossan Accies 26

Peebles 53

Rich Porter at Memorial Field

AFTER a two hour cross country trip Peebles were welcomed at the Memorial Field in Ardrossan with a sunny day and a light sea breeze.

Despite the hosts' bottom place in BT National League 2, they ran Peebles close for three-quarters of the game - even going ahead by a point just after the hour.

Peebles dominated the early exchanges and only a staunch defence and a few errors kept them out.

The first try came in the 11th minute when a sweeping attack, with the ball going along the back line at pace allowed Steve Hamilton to break the final defender.

Greg Raeburn's conversion went wide.

Just five minutes later the lead was extended with Corey Togia going over with strong support from the pack.

Raeburn stretched the lead to 12 points.

The home side responded midway through the first half with a try under the posts, which was duly converted.

Raeburn kicked a penalty in front of the home posts to increase the Peebles lead.

And it looked as though the Pees would enter easy street after David Anderson crossed in 26th minute for his team's third try.

Raeburn took the score out to 22-7.

On the half hour the Peebles full back suffered a hamstring injury and was replaced by rookie James King.

The backline was re-jigged and Peebles seemed to switch off before half time allowing the hosts to go over for a lifeline.

The conversion reduced the gap to just eight points.

The second half started well for Peebles as Greg Raeburn struck a penalty within five minutes of the restart.

But they went off the boil as the home pack found the upper hand.

A pushover try on 51 minutes was followed by another well worked try just six minutes later.

The conversion gave Ardrossan a single point lead.

Peebles were finally spurred into action with 12 minutes left on the clock.

A tremendous run by wing, Scott Stoddart started the comeback and he raced through the defence to score under the posts. Raeburn converted to give Pees as 32-26 advantage.

James King added two quick tries in the space of four minutes, and Raeburn added both conversions.

The late show was rounded off in the final minute with Ryan McConnell barging his way over. The Raeburn conversion gave Peebles a final score of 53-26.