Late fightback not enough as Birkmyre slip to 27–19 defeat

Waysiders/Drumpellier 27 – 19 Birkmyre 

Venue: Waysiders/Drumpellier, Motherwell
Date: Saturday 11th October 2025
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Arnold Clark West Region League Division 2 (Men’s)

Birkmyre came away empty-handed at the weekend after a 27–19 defeat away to bottom-of-the-table Waysiders. Having handed the home side a 20-point lead by half time, it was always going to be a difficult task to recover, even after Waysiders were reduced to 14 players early in the second half.

Waysiders opened the scoring three minutes in with a penalty from in front of the posts. Five minutes later, Birkmyre had the chance to level the score, but Lewis Higgins’ kick drifted left.

In the 18th minute, the hosts extended their lead with a converted try to go 10–0 ahead. Just two minutes later, Waysiders received their first yellow card for a high tackle, putting them down to 14 men for 10 minutes. Birkmyre were unable to take advantage and, in fact, lost a player of their own five minutes later when Liam Nicholas was shown yellow for being offside close to his own line. From the resulting penalty, Waysiders powered over for their second converted try.

The Coatbridge side added a further penalty on 34 minutes to make it 20–0. They ended the half a man down again after another yellow was shown for a high tackle.

Despite the scoreline, Birkmyre did not feel out of the contest. They had been drawn into playing a style that suited Waysiders and knew that moving the ball better in the second half could change things. And from the restart, it did — the ball found its way to Cammy Marr, who broke tackles and scored in at the corner.

Just three minutes later, the match seemed to swing further Birkmyre’s way when a Waysiders forward was shown a red card. As he pulled out of a ruck, his flailing arm appeared to make contact with the referee’s face, and he was sent off as a result. However, the numerical disadvantage didn’t slow the home side, and in the 52nd minute they added another converted try.

As the match wore on, Waysiders began to tire and used every trick to slow the game down, though the referee appeared to be stopping the clock on several occasions. In the 70th minute, Michael McGeogh crossed for his only score of the day, finding space on the right-hand side and outpacing the defence to touch down. Four minutes later, Archie Hopley narrowed the deficit to eight points, running an excellent support line to collect a pass 10 metres out and dive in under the posts unopposed.

Birkmyre pushed for more, but couldn’t add any further points before time ran out. The defeat drops them to seventh in the table. They now host fourth-placed Irvine this Saturday, but will be without Jamie Haran, who broke his collarbone during the match, and Louis Hoodless, who suffered a broken finger.

Photos by Fiona Wallace.

All photos: Photo Credit: Fiona Wallace