The Tigers sixth game of Season 2023 saw us back on the bus and heading back up to sunny Scotland (it’s always sunny in Scotland right?) to play the West Lothian Eagles on their home turf in Linlithgow.

 

After a physically bruising contest we managed to bank our fourth win of the season, running out 15 point winners (Tigers 15.28.118 v Eagles 15.13.103).

 

But the game was neck and neck all day.

 

The Eagles got the opening goal of the game. The Tigers quickly got that one back. And thereafter we were then always ahead on the scoreboard for the rest of the match, but never by much.

 

The Eagles kept coming at us, scoring goals regularly, exploiting Tiger errors, and forcing us to dig deep to absorb and counteract the physical pressure they were applying.

 

But – in the heat of that battle -  key players stood up.

 

Captain Roy Brannigan was huge, giving 100% of himself all day and willing his team mates to do the same. 

 

Jake Tucker imposed himself on the game, responding to the physicality of the Eagles with a fair measure of his own, whilst also maintaining creative flair and dash through the midfield.

 

Matty Gallagher stayed competitive and dangerous up forward, keeping the Eagles backline accountable even after Tiger key forward David Hodgson was moved into the backline to help shore up our defensive effort.

 

And then there were brave efforts from some of our less experienced guys…

 

Not for the first time this year Waz Pullen showed us all what ‘Lancashire tough’ looks like after receiving a nasty knee to the head that caused a fair bit of bleeding and tarnished his ravaging good looks. 

 

Joe Dimambro – making his long awaited debut – showed us all that he’s got a great Tiger future ahead of him by laying a couple of fantastic tackles and coming within a whisker of scoring a goal in his first game ever of ‘Aussie Rules” football. 

 

And Ieuan Rees bounced back from a niggly hamstring strain sustained 10 days previously at training to provide great ruck support to veteran Colum Joseph, who’s having so much fun he declared after the game that ‘there was no way he was coming off the ground in that fourth quarter!’. That’s the spirit Col!!

 

Coach Chris Roger summed the game up thus:

 

'It was a battle all day...we were a bit flat, but we bank the win and move on'.

 

He's also asked each player to reflect on yesterday’s game (what we did well and what we need to get better at) in order to give ourselves the best chance of playing to our full potential in our next game (a tough rematch against reigning premier the Edinburgh Bloods ), and – hopefully – the finals beyond.

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Season 2023 rolls on....Carn the Tiges!