'Giving away a silly penalty cost us' - Uddingston Rugby Club ace bemoans defeat at Clydebank ahead of derby crunch

Despite tries by Alan Paul and Blane Anderson and a Cameron Quinn conversion, Uddingston were defeated 17-12 at Clydebank after a hard fought contest in the West End.

But local rivals Dalziel built up for the Bothwell Castle Policies encounter this Saturday with a 24-7 home victory over Paisley.

Uddingston try scorer Anderson said that the Clydebank match was a gruelling one for both sides.

After Paul’s early score was converted by Cameron Quinn to put the Villagers 7-0 up, Clydebank hit back with two tries – one of which was converted – to lead 12-7 at half-time.

"They dominated the first 10 minutes and then we got a breakaway try,” Anderson said. “But after that I do think that we were the ones who were looking to score more than them in the first half.

"We were in their 22 about three times and just couldn’t get that second try so we were a bit unfortunate to be trailing at the interval.”

On the hour mark, Uddingston were level at 12-12 with 20 minutes remaining when Anderson scored in the corner after a fine passing move.

"We worked it from our own half into their 22 and chipped it wide,” Anderson added. “Fortunately their players had been sucked in a bit more and there was space for me just to dive in the corner.”

The tricky conversion attempt was missed by Quinn.

And there was a disappointing conclusion for the away side as Clydebank scored a try with just 12 minutes remaining to take the victory.

"When we scored our second try we thought we were in a good place and we saw their heads starting to drop,” Anderson said.

"We thought we could win a penalty or something and kick ourselves in front.

"But we gave away a silly penalty in midfield and they kicked for the corner.

"The try came from a lineout which they turned straight into a maul and they drove over the line in the corner which is poor from our point of view.”

Anderson reckons this Saturday’s derby could provide the ideal tonic for Uddingston after such a disappointing defeat.

He said: "It’s at home and we beat Dalziel away. We like to think we’ve got a decent record at home so coming off the back of a defeat we think we should have won it’s a good game for us.

"We try not to have too much confidence. We went in with confidence against Clydebank but it was the mistakes that lost us that game I think.

"So it’s more about sticking to what we know. We are not going in really cocky or really confident.

"The idea is to try and stick to the game plan, put in a good performance and the tries and the scores will come.

“There were quite a few knocks against Clydebank.

"One of the boys – Andy Watson – came on for five minutes and then snapped his leg. So I don’t know when he’ll be back.

"And there are other boys trying to recover from knocks.”