PL Lack Killer Instinct - Killie Don't!

It was as they say, a game of two halves though, as PL totally dominated the first half without getting significant points on the board, before fading in the second and allowing the visitors to steady their ship and take their chances to complete a comfortable victory.
PL got away to a dream start after Craig Howie stole the ball at a Kilmarnock line-out and when it reached Greg Kinross in the centre, he was to break through the back line and gain 30m. Kilmarnock struggled to defend and were forced into conceding a penalty which Kinross converted to make the score 3–0 after only two minutes.
Dale Gordon was the next to make yards with ease as he too broke through and good hands by both the forwards and backs looked to have created an opening but the final pass was adjudged to have gone forward and the move was halted. The PL pack were completely on top, pushing their opponents off the ball with apparent ease and when Gordon received the ball after one such surge, he first looked to go left then turned back to his right and coolly slotted a drop goal from 25m.
Kilmarnock were quick to respond though, as they won a penalty from the restart when PL went to ground and Brown stepped up to slot the easy kick and make the score 6-3.
Then, they immediately took the lead when the ball was collected from the kick off inside their own 22 and very poor PL defending allowed Speirs to break through with ease and feed to Millican who raced in to score in the corner. The try remained unconverted but the scoreline of 6-8 belied the amount of possession and domination that PL had in the game. The pack continued to push Kilmarnock off the ball at the scrums and despite the referee being extremely lenient in allowing the visitors to break from the scrum early, it only seemed to be a matter of time before the pressure would be turned into points.
David Scott came on to replace Colin Voy after half an hour and immediately made an impact by making a big hit on his opposite number but despite the good breaks and winning loose ball, neither the forwards or backs could make a decisive break to get to the line.
The Kilmarnock blindside flanker was eventually penalised for not binding but Kinross failed with the kick from 22m. However, the full back would have one further chance to regain the lead for his side before half time when, after many drives and phases inside the 22, another penalty was forced but this time his kick from 30m fell short. However, the ball was knocked on and once again the PL pack found a big push to put Kilmarnock in all sorts of trouble on their own line but lack of control meant that the ball couldn’t be touched down, leaving the half time score an almost unbelievable 6-8 in favour of the visitors.

The second half started with PL looking eager enough to continue where they had left off and a spell of good passing resulted in Jonathan Brash dabbing the ball past the last defenders but it ran to far before anybody was able to touch it down. The pack too had one final drive of 20m before Scott fed to Kinross who was able to dart through again but once more, the move came to nothing.
There was to be no further scoring until the 74th minute of the game but the domination that the PL pack had shown in the first half began to fade. The Kilmarnock scrum was much steadier and Brown at stand-off controlled the midfield with ease. PL were playing on the back foot and clean possession was more difficult to come by and it didn’t help that defensive or positional kicks often fell short.
Confusion between Gordon and Kinross inside their own 22 allowed Kilmarnock to win the ball and feed to Bradford and the winger had the easiest of tasks to score in the corner. The conversion was good to make the score 6-15.
PL weren’t exactly lying down though and after good pressure, they were able to force a penalty. Because the time on the clock showed 79 minutes, PL captain Euan Thayne asked Kinross to kick the goal in the hope that this would secure a losing bonus point and the full back was successful from 40m.
There was still time to restart though and after applying good pressure of their own, it was Kilmarnock who would force another penalty from PL, allowing Brown to re-establish his side’s 9 point advantage at 9-18.
And further salt was to be rubbed into the wounds when despite clearly signalling a PL penalty just on Kilmarnock’s 22, the referee allowed play to continue and the ball was passed to Bradford who raced unopposed from 70m to score under the posts. The conversion was added with the clock showing 89 minutes and the scoreboard, 9-25.

So it will be back to the training ground for PL for more hard work to try to find the cutting edge that will allow pressure to be turned into points, before they travel to Lasswade next Saturday for the nearest thing there is to a local derby in this division.

Preston Lodge team:
C Guiney, D Thomson, G Kinross, J Brash, R Dudgeon, D Gordon, J Burns,
B Jones, C Wilson, C McLean, C Howie, A Blair, C Voy, S Dixon, E Thayne.
Replacements:
S McLean, D Scott, F Harris (All Used)