26/10/02
Polis 20 Linwood 0

01/02/03

Bishopton 13 Linwood 27

Levels hoisted themselves level on points with Bishopton at the foot of the table with this vital derby win. Bishopton struck first at Holmpark going in front via an Alan Lees penalty goal which was quickly answered in kind by ‘Wood’s Graham Walker.

Linwood then went in front when from a rehearsed penalty ploy Scott Young crashed through the Bishopton defence to touch down between the posts and leave Walker with a simple conversion. But Bishopton quickly showed they too had penetrative penalty ploys in their arsenal with David Jackson crashing over, but the conversion was missed.

The visitors came back into when with a short range line out possession the Linwood pack trundled over the line and collapsed in a heap. The referee awarded the try with Stuart Montgomery and Stuart Ross still arguing over which one of them deserves credit for the score. The try went unconverted.

Linwood’s third try was started and finished by Alan Williamson. He took a quick throw-in, received in back and attacked. The ball then went through three other pairs of hands before Williamson popped up again for the final sprint along the touch line into the in-goal area, his try making the half-time score 20-10 to the visitors.

Williamson completed Linwood’s scoring with the crucial fourth try early in the second half. Kevin Rees began the move when he gathered a poor Bishopton clearance kick. He released Williamson who dummied the Bishopton cover whilst sprinting 30 metres to touch down between the posts. Walker converted, and the try earned Linwood a bonus point.

Bishopton had most of the territory over the final half hour, but Linwood defended superbly and the home team managed only one breakthrough, their pack rucking and driving over for Jackson to touch down in the corner for his second try which was unconverted.

28/09/02
Marr 78 Linwood 5

05/04/03
Paisley 31 Linwood 32

Linwood top and tailed their season with victories over Paisley following this friendly played over four quarters at Anchor. Linwood struck first in the opening quarter when Alan Docherty picked up at the base of the scrum, side-stepped the first tackler, broke through the second challenge, then when halted had support from Kevin Rees who drove the Doc over the line for an unconverted try. Paisley recovered quickly and a Michale Sommerville try converted by Gavin Newlands put them 7-5 ahead. However, the advantage swung back to Linwood before the first break. Scott Young headed for the safety of his pack on a three-quarter move, breaking a tackle then shipping the ball to Huw Rees, who made ground before returning the ball for Young, on the loop, to run in a second unconverted try for the visitors.

Linwood stretched their advantage at the start of the second quarter with full back Alan Williamson joining the line and drawing the Paisley winger and full back before releasing winger Gordon martin to score Linwood’s third unconverted try to lead 15-7. Before the next break Paisley got themselves back into the game with another converted try. Stuart Blaikie got the touch down with Newlands converting.

After the resumption Linwood made the better start, with a rehearsed penalty move working perfectly as Scott Young powered between the posts allowing Graham Walker to kick his first successful conversion and put Linwood 22-14 ahead. Paisley again hit back with their third converted try. Ally McKechnie going over this time, Newlands adding the conversion and bringing them back to within one point. But once more the pendulum swung Linwood’s way and the Linwood backs combined to send Scott Young over for his hat-trick try, converted by Walker to make it 29-21 to Linwood. A Chris Lyall try, converted by Newlands brought it back to 29-28.

With two minutes to go Newlands converted a penalty to put Paisley in the lead, but Walker’s penalty one minute later creeped over the bar to give Linwood a narrow one point victory.