Wigtownshire 17-5 Dalziel: Wig inflict hairy first half on Motherwell team

The Motherwell outfit – who had won their previous four league games – suffered from a disappointing opening half when playing into the wind at Stranraer’s London Road.

The opening 40 minutes saw Wigtownshire manage two converted tries and a penalty to go 17-0 up at the interval.

Although Dalziel scored a second half try through Lewis Marshall, they couldn’t manage to put any further points on the board.

Dalziel player/head coach Graham Calder said: "I do think the result would have been different if the wind hadn’t been as strong.

"However, to be honest we gave away too many penalties in the first half and they then capitalised on it.

"We played very well against a very good side the whole game, the second half in particular.

“But the wind definitely died down a bit in the second half and 17 points proved a little too much to make up."

Calder believes his side were on the wrong end of a dodgy refereeing decision with 10 minutes remaining which severely scuppered their chances.

He added: “We had a lineout five metres from their line, they collapsed it and in my opinion the referee could easily have awarded a penalty try and a yellow card.

"If he’d decided to do that, it could have been a completely different game after that. I was frustrated but ultimately that’s not why we lost the game.

"It was in the first half we lost the game. I feel as if we deserved more out of the game than we got.

"But we are still making progress and that’s all that matters.

"We are now in a position where we’re not going to get promoted and we’re not going to get relegated so now we want to keep progressing and build for next season.”

Dalziel, fifth with 32 points from 13 games, host seventh placed Clydebank in the league this Saturday with kick-off at 3pm.

Calder said: “Morale’s high. We are playing exceptionally well.

"We are really pleased with the progress we’re making in every game and this is an opportunity for us to put last Saturday’s result behind us, kick on and beat Clydebank this Saturday.”

Local rivals Uddingston, eighth with 16 points from 12 games, had no West Division 2 fixture last weekend. They return to league action this Saturday at fourth placed Oban Lorne, with kick-off at 3pm.