Chester Romans 0 Glasgow Tigers 10

With wet and miserable weather for the game, The Romans emulated that analogy with their worst performance in 2009 a day where nothing really got going for them and there can be no arguments the team that wanted it most was also the best team on the day and Glasgow deserved their victory.

Glasgow had the slight edge of a pretty uneventful first half although I’m sure neither side will have been overjoyed. The best chance came at the end of the first half  when the Romans conceded a 15 yard penalty giving The Tigers a first and goal on Chester’s 9 yard line but  The Romans defence held firm as they have done so far this season, having only given up two touchdowns in the previous 3 games.  The half ended with the game tied at zero.

The third quarter was pretty much the same as the previous two.  Chest er’s offence continued to stutter and just could not string a drive together and the Glasgow defence continued to get the better of them, The Romans Defence was having an equally solid game and were keeping the team in the game with some good stands against the Tigers Offence.

It wasn’t until the beginning of the 4th Quarter until the deadlock was broken,  a momentary lapse and Glasgow’s one big play of the day saw them with a 41 yard gain down to the Roman 4 yard line, and a first down. The next play the Tigers seemed destined to score but a certain touchdown was thwarted by Tom Staples whose quick reflexes got him in front of the Receiver and deflected the pass from the receivers grasp. A holding penalty sent the Tigers 10 yards further back on the next play and a solid tackle by James “Seal” McNeil saw the tigers gain no yards, 3rd and goal was broken up by French cornerback Nadgy Khirat and so The Tigers were forced to settle for a field goal attempt, which was good. The Romans found themselves behind for the first time all season.

The Romans turned the ball over just two plays later when Glasgow intercepted a wild pass from Jason Wilcock inside the Roman 20 yard line. Again, strong defence by the Romans prevented the20Tigers from scoring a Touchdown, in fact like their previous drive they went backwards.  It set the Tigers up for another field goal attempt but the kick was well wide to the left.   The Romans couldn’t capitalise and 3 plays later The tigers intercepted the Romans again and only James Tootle’s never say die attitude saved them when he ran back and pushed the Tigers player out of bounds at the Roman 1 yard line. After a couple of good stands The Romans defence didn’t give up but two plays later The tigers took the ball into the endzone, with the conversion it was 10-0 to Glasgow and 9 minutes left in the game.

There were two more drives for The Romans, but no more opportunities for them to score and they conceded defeat  with 54 seconds of the game left when they chose to punt the ball away rather than go for it on fourth down and the Romans tasted a loss for the first time this season, on a day when they managed no completions and 71 yards total offence on the ground. It was a dire performance from the offence which had been leading the division with 27.66 average points per game prior to this shutout. The Romans also became the first team in the division to lose to a Scottish team this season (in 7 inter-division games) based on Glasgow’s performance th ey won’t be the Last. The Romans get a chance to redeem themselves against Scottish opposition when they travel to Clyde Valley next week, a team that managed to Beat Glasgow in Glasgow the week previous, so a very tough test indeed and one the Romans will hope to win and put this blip behind them.