Glasgow Accies 22

Peebles 20

Allan Beveridge

at New Anniesland

A LATE fightback by Peebles narrowly failed to overhaul hosts Glasgow Accies on Saturday, despite one their poorest performances of the season.

And if a couple of conversions had sneaked inside the posts the Pees could have been enjoying victory at New Anniesland.

On a high after defeating leaders Biggar the week before and, perhaps, a little complacency following a bonus point win over the hosts at the start of the season Peebles began slowly.

Accies raced in an early 10 point lead after Andy Brown had finished off a good-handling move for the try.

A successful conversion was followed just five minutes later by an accurate penalty.

A Greg Raeburn penalty got the visitors onto the scoreboard after quarter of an hour.

But it was the hosts who were to stretch their advantage despite Peebles being camped on their line.

The hosts were awarded a five-metre scrum and full back Ross Cowan managed to break through a space and race the length of the field to score.

Peebles needed a response and they got on the stroke of half time as Rohan Maciver crashed over just to the edge of the posts.

The conversion was pulled just wide leaving the interval score at 15-8.

Pressure from the Peebles pack led to a second score in the 44th minute with David Collins darting down the wing for the try.

But again the conversion drifted wide of the mark.

Referee Matt Duncan brandished a yellow card to Raeburn.in the 53rd minute.

And Accies quickly capitalised with a well-worked try from Will Brown to stretch the advantage to 22-13.

The visitors were reduced to 13 men briefly as a yellow was also shown to Peebles.

The Pees tackled well to prevent Accies taking further advantage - and when Collins sprinted in for his second score of the game in the 73rd minute a comeback looked on the cards.

Raeburn landed the conversion to make the score 22-20 with six minutes remaining.

Despite a big effort in the closing stages Accies managed to see out the game.

Peebles: D Wills, J Dow, M Brown, J Harrison, D Collins, G Raeburn, D Anderson, N Hogarth, R Stewart, W Aitken, W Brown, R Brown, D Voas, R Britain & R Maciver. Reps R Reid, C Pye, S Hunter & M Walker.