Lacklustre Lomond succumb to Strathie

Oct 10 2008 by Laura McLachlan, Lennox Herald (main ed)

LOCH Lomond lost at home to Strathendrick on Saturday – in a defeat that shattered the theory of the Fortress Dilly.

For long enough, the theory has been that the Dilly was a good luck charm to Loch Lomond, having provided many memorable moments for the local side throughout the years.

However, that luck ran out on Saturday as the home side were narrowly defeated by an inferior Strathendrick side – leaving Lomond hoping they wouldn’t rue the defeat come the end of the season.

Everything in the run-up to the match was in Lomond’s favour . They’d won two games on the spin while their opponents had lost all four of their own opening league fixtures.

But Lomond would always have needed to be at their best to win this game and, for reasons that clearly bewildered them, they simply weren’t.

They almost managed to pull this result out of the fire but throughout the entire 80 minutes they seemed to be slightly below their best – their opponents just seemed to want victory more.

It wasn’t pretty by any standard but compelling from first minute to last.

The opening exchanges were bruising and brutal. Lomond kicked off into the sunshine and made progress with a combination of pugilistic power from the forwards and sniping breaks from wingers Muir and Fairman but they gave away some inopportune penalties and were gradually forced back.

The visitors never looked like piercing Lomond’s miserly defence but they did manage to stretch it on more than one occasion.

After 15 minutes they secured possession about 40 metres out and, as the defence failed to close down Endrick’s stand-off, he needed no second invitation to send a sublime drop-goal neatly between the posts for 3-0.

To their credit, Lomond were completely nonplussed by falling behind. Instead they simply went about the job of getting back into the match – and five minutes later they did.

Nicholson set the ball rolling with an electrifying break that almost led to a score and, although the visitors managed to clear the danger, Lomond bashed their way back up the park in a series of forward drives before Manus Flynn crashed over for a real purist’s try.

Both teams tried to lift their games to gain a more decisive advantage but when the ref blew up for half-time it was Lomond who had their noses in front.

Lomond’s frustrations began to boil over into repeated infringements that handed big territorial gains to Strathendrick in the second half.

Lomond’s defence appeared secure, but they were woefully slow to get into their opponents’ faces and, from all of 45 metres, Endrick’s second-choice stand-off punished them with a magnificent drop-goal.

That made it 6-5 to Strathendrick and so the score-line stayed despite all Lomond’s efforts. Finally with just 10 minutes left, Lomond earned a penalty barely within Nicholson’s range.

Nevertheless, he opted to go for the posts and the home crowd held their breath. The moments before he took the kick seemed to stretch and then, amidst a mighty roar of relief from team-mates and supporters, the ball bisected the posts.

It was 8-6 to Lomond with only five minutes to go and the game looked in the bag. But Endrick had other ideas.

They bashed their way down the field and the Lomond defence panicked unnecessarily – giving away a penalty just thirty yards from goal.

Up stepped the Endrick stand-off to stroke home what proved top be the winning points, and leave Lomond with no comeback.