Match Report from:  Head Coach Gordon “Gogs” Carmichael

On Saturday Annan travelled out west to take on Kilmarnock in their 4th league game of the season having won 2 and lost 1. In the past it has not been a happy ground to go to and with the traffic heavy causing some players to arrive late it was not the best preparation.

With Annan slow out of the blocks it was Kilmarnock that scored the 1st try which was unconverted. This seemed to wake up the away side and started to put the ball through their hands and were rewarded when winger, Elliott Haley who then ran in 2 tries in the corners which were both unconverted.

With some loose kicking from both sides, Captain Andrew Jancey fielded a high ball and spotted a gap in the home defense and took off up the pitch with the line beckoning he was caught by their winger just short of the line but it was judged by the referee to be a high tackle and was awarded a penalty try to take score to Kilmarnock 5 v Annan 17.

Annan then set back on their laurels which allowed Kilmarnock to score their 2nd try to bring up the score to 12. Annan then held onto the ball and went through several faces to which the ball came wide and the prop, Kieran Warrick was hanging out wide on the touchline and romped in from 20 metres to score in the corner which was unconverted to finish the first half with score Kilmarnock 12 v Annan 22.

Annan started 2nd half better with some good back play resulting in standoff James Bigham crossing over for a try. It was not converted.

Annan with more of the possession scored again with some interplay with Ryan Hetherington offloading to Michael Thompson who offloaded to scrum half Aaron Carmichael who rounded the full back to score under the post. Which at last was converted by Josh Whiteside to push the Annan score to 34.

Annan then sat back and gave Kilmarnock some possession who then scored going through some weak tackling to take the score to Kilmarnock 17 v Annan 34.

With Kilmarnock pushing for a bonus point for 4th try a well read interception by centre Ryan Hetherington who ran in unopposed to score under the post and another conversion added by Josh Whiteside which turned out to be final score of the game Kilmarnock 17 v Annan 41.

On the day Annan were the better team but will need to up their intensity next week when they play against local rivals Stewartry.

Annan Starting XV: Ryan Glass, Kieron Warrick, Aidan Craik, Michael Thomson, Daniel Robson, Frazer Hope, Callum Bell, Sean Haren, Aaron Carmichael, James Bigham, Josh Whiteside, Alex Halliday, Ryan Hetherington, Elliot Haley, Andrew Jancey

Subs: Ewan Campbell, Eben Levin, Duncan Smith. Kieron Watret – all used.