The Edinburgh Reporter’s Weekly Sports Roundup
This week, Neil Lennon slams Hibs’ tactics whilst Hearts poor run of results continues. (Match reports from both games are available on the main site)
Rugby Round-up by John Preece
With Edinburgh Accies away at London Scottish this weekend, it was another abbreviated calendar in the RBS Premiership. Both of the remaining Edinburgh sides were playing at home, and both lost to teams up from the Borders. Heriots were beaten by Hawick 25-18 and Currie suffered yet another morale crushing defeat, going down 30-10 to table-topping Melrose.
And that table has Heriots still in second with 31, Accies drop to 7th, but now have two games in hand and poor old Currie are now, seemingly, cut adrift at the bottom with 6. They are only 7 points behind Stirling, but with them playing in the B+I Cup, they too have two games in hand.
Planned main report match for next weekend is the top of the table clash at Goldenacre between Heriots and Melrose.
In the RBS National League, there was yet another bonus point win for Boroughmuir, who beat GHA 28-15. Stew-Mel and Watsonians played out a tense 14-13 match at Inverleith, with the home side staying home with the points.
‘Muir consolidate their position at the top of the table, now 12 points clear of second place Watsonians, with 44 points – including eight, from a possible nine, try bonus point wins! Stew-Mel are still in fourth but are creeping that bit closer to the top three, and are only 2 points shy of Selkirk with 28.
In the B+I Cup match mentioned above Accies suffered another heavy defeat in the competition, this time to London Scottish. Visiting The Athletic Ground for the first time, Accies managed to hold out the ‘exiles’ for all of three minutes. That was the start of a long day, but the Edinburgh side did manage to cross the whitewash for three tries of their own against vastly superior opposition. The final score was 55-19 to Scottish. Next two rounds are the 7th/14th December and the ER hope to be at the Accies home match against London Welsh on the 14th to see just how good – or otherwise – these softy Southerners are. Not holding any breath…
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Edinburgh Rugby by Jonny Davis
Edinburgh Rugby were unable to follow their Heineken Cup opening round victory against Munster with a win against French side Perpignan this weekend, as they were defeated 31-14 at the Stade Aime Giral.
The Gunners started brightly, and led 7-3 at the break, thanks to the ever-prolific winger, Tim Visser, finishing off a flowing back move for the only try of the first half, but the lead was short-lived.
Perpignanʼs attacking threat before the interval had been hampered by a series of handling errors, but the side that came out for the second half were ruthless and clinical.
Full-back, Joffrey Michel crossed for the first of four Perpignan tries in the second half, just minutes after the restart, with replacement winger, Wandile Mjekevu collecting a box kick and bursting through the Edinburgh defence.
The French side then dominated proceedings, and streaked to a 24 point lead, Mjekevu bagging a brace, and back-row forward, Justin Purll crashing over the line.
Alan Solomonsʼ side rallied in the latter stages with recent signing, Cornell Du Preez crossing for his first try for the club, but it wasnʼt enough to claim a losing bonus point.
In Pool 6ʻs other round 2 fixture, Edinburghʼs last week opponents, Munster beat English side Gloucester 26-10 at Thomond Park, which means all sides have recorded one defeat and a victory so far in the competition.
Next up for Edinburgh, attention turns back to the RaboDirect PRO12 competition as they take on Treviso at Murrayfield on Friday night.
SPFL Football
Hibs produced a brave performance to grab a share of the points against champions Celtic at Easter Road. Paul Heffernan opened the scoring with a well taken goal after being sent clear by Kevin Thomson although TV replays shows that he was in an offside position when he received the ball. Celtic equalised late in the game with a superb solo effort from substitute James Forrest when Hibs left back Ryan McGivern was off the field receiving treatment.
There was controversy after the game when Celtic boss Neil Lennon complained about the Hibs’ strong arm tactics, but Pat Fenlon was in no mood to apologise.
Lennon said: “It was shocking – absolutely shocking. Reckless. I’m all for competitive football, no one more than myself, but seriously, they were borderline tackles. I didn’t really say to Pat but I made my feelings pretty clear to the fourth official. I don’t think it was any player target in particular, it was across the board. Without singling players out, the tackle by (Rowan) Vine on (Darnell) Fisher was rugby-esque. We’ve got a big Champions League game and I’m not asking any favours, I don’t mind teams being competitive, and the physicality of the game was good but I felt it was over the top. My opinion may be different from Pat’s, he’ll say he sent his team out to get in our faces and I don’t mind that at all, but the ref should take more of a grip on it sometimes.”
Fenlon made no apologies when told of Lennon’s criticism. “Good that means the message is getting across to my players that we want to go and compete and get in people’s faces. We worked tremendously hard and we made sure Celtic knew they were in a game and that’s what it was about today. You’ve got to be because if you stand off them and let them play then they will tear you apart and we weren’t going to (let them) do that. I think most of the tackles were fair, I think there was one in the first half that they moaned about but it was a good tackle, it was a real good challenge. Everyone has different opinions I suppose.”
Meanwhile the Hibs Under 20s progressed to the next round of the Scottish Youth Cup after beating Ross County 5-1 thanks to goals from David Paul (2), Euan Smith and Jason Cummings (2). Loam Hutchison scored for Ross County.
Hearts travelled along the M8 to Motherwell and took the lead in the 62 minute with a fine Ryan Stevenson strike from a Scott Robinson pass, but ‘Well equalised seven minutes later when substitute Craig Moore scored with his first touch of the ball on his debut. The goal was even sweeter for the 18 year old as he had been freed by Hearts as a schoolboy.
Shaun Hutchison scored the winner for the Steelmen with eight minutes remaining with a header from a corner.
Hearts are now 13 points behind Kilmarnock whom they visit next weekend. After the game manager Gary Locke said: “From the start of the season, being 15 points adrift was never going to be easy, so it is a disappointing day for us in as much as St Mirren have won, Kilmarnock have won, and we’ve got beat and lost Calum Paterson through injury. It’s been a bad day, but one thing we can’t do; we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. The boys are disappointed, but we aren’t a million miles away. We competed against a really good side who I think will be in the top two or three. Every game is huge, but next week is probably even more important because of the way the results went today.
Off the park, Hearts announced glamour friendly against German side Wolfsburg which will take place at Tynecastle on November 13.
East of Scotland League
Qualifying League Group A
Kelso United 0-2 Civil Service Strollers
Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale 5-0 Eyemouth United
Qualifying League Group B
Duns 3-4 Ormiston FT
Hawick Royal Albert 1-1 Stirling University FT
Qualifying League Group C
Burntisland Shipyard Amateur 1-3 Heriot-Watt University
Hibernian 3-3 Leith Athletic
Qualifying League Group D
Easthouses Lily MW 3-3 Spartans
Central Taxis Premier Division
Coldstream 1-1 Edinburgh University
Tynecastle 5-0 Craigroyston
Lowland League
Goals by Danny Main and Keith McLeod helped 9 men Spartans to secure a valuable point away to Dalbeattie Star.
Main opened the scoring in the 9th minute with a powerful header from a Grant cross.
Struthers had the ball in the net for Dalbeattie in the 21st minute however the linesman correctly called him offside.
Just before the break, Dalbeattie drew level against the run of play after when Milligan challenged keeper Bennet causing him to drop the ball which he poked into the net for the equaliser.
Spartans regained their lead in the 62nd minute when Bremner was brought down in the box and McLeod stepped up to send Martin the wrong way.
Star eventually equalised with ten minutes remaining after Jamie Struthers raced on to a long ball to level the score.
With both sides pressing for a winner Spartans substitute Robbie Ross was sent off after receiving two yellow cards then team-mate John Grant followed him after complaining to the referee.
The Ainslie Park outfit held on to secure the point.
Malt and Hops Man of the Match: Danny Main
Teams: Bennett, Grant, Cennerazzo, Sivewright, Main, Blaikie, Bremner, Whatley, Henretty, McLeod, Beelsey. Subs: Ross, Beacher, Brown, Motion, Gilpin
Elsewhere Edinburgh City lost 2-0 at home to Threave Rovers.
Spartans remain top with 19 points from 9 games whilst Edinburgh City sit ninth with ten points from eight games.
Women’s Football
Congratulations to Glasgow City who marched into the last 16 of the Champions League after producing a superb performance in the Maritime Craft Services sponsored match to defeat Belgian opponents, Standard Liege, 3-1 (5-3 aggregate) on a rain-sodden Petershill Park. The Glasgow side will face Arsenal in the quarter final.
Hibs Ladies lost 2-1 to Celtic at Ravenscraig whilst Spartans Women lost 9-0 to Glasgow City an Ainslie Park.
Speedway
The Scotwaste Monarchs will host the first leg of the Premier Championship Final at Armadale next Friday night, 25th October against Somerset Rebels. The deciding leg will take place at Somerset on Monday 28th October. Both meetings will begin at 7.30pm.
Chairman, Alex Harkess told the official website “It’s disappointing that, again, we will not have the chance of winning the Championship at home, although that was out of our hands this time, but I’ve always felt that it is easier to defend a lead rather than overcome one. I feel that our boys have all come back to form after a little dip about a month ago and we’re all eager to repel the Rebel challenge. I can’t wait for next Friday.
The Scotwaste Monarchs are keen to make next Friday’s affair a gala occasion and will be announcing more details in due course.
Elsewhere Craig Cook gave a great account of himself at Swindon on Saturday night by taking third place in the Elite League Riders Championship, which was won for the second time by former Monarch Rory Schlein.
Ice Hockey
On Saturday night Edinburgh Capitals travelled along the M8 in confident mood, but lost 3- 2 to Braehead Clan (After Penalty Shots)
Curtis Leinweber opened the scoring for the Caps at 1.18, then Braehead had to wait until 14.21 to draw level when Shane Lust netted on the powerplay.
The Capitals regained the lead as Tomas Horna scored with a shorthanded goal at 32.28 before at 52.04 debutant Neil Trimm tied the game up with a powerplay goal. No further scoring saw the game go into overtime were neither team could find a game winner.
Penalty shots were required to decide who was getting the extra point and after four shots apiece neither team had scored. The Capitals then scored through Les Reaney as did the Clan’s Neil Trimm, Capitals Tomas Horna then missed and then Joel Champagne netted with his to give the Clan the win.
On Sunday night, the Capitals lost 3-4 to Fife Flyers at Murrayfield; their ninth straight loss
The Caps opened the scoring with a powerplay strike from Martin Cingel at 6.21 but Stephen Gunn equalised at 13.08.
Jordan Fulton at 27.06 and then Derek Roehl at 28.22 gave the Flyers a two goal advantage before Capitals Captain Cingel pulled one back at 29.50.
Jamie Wilson scored at 42.27 to make the score 2-4 but 12 seconds later the Capitals’ Michal Dobron netted reduced the advantage to one goal, but the Fife side held on for the victory.
Basketball
In the Senior Men’s League Boroughmuir Blaze beat Troon Tornadoes 80-68 whilst City of Edinburgh Kings beat Glasgow Storm 67-50 in Glasgow.
Boxing
Lochend boxer Josh Taylor lost narrowly to the No.5 seed and home favourite, Kazakhstan’s Merey Akshalov at the World Boxing Championships in Almaty. Akshalov has boxed at the highest level in the 2008 Olympic Games and World Series Boxing championships.
Afterwards Josh tweeted: “Lost my fight today in a very close contest. Really gutted. Lost to a Beijing Olympian and former WSB champ. Top fighter.”