Aberdeen Wanderers RFC......................43

Alloa RFC..................................................23

Tennent's Caledonia Region League, Division 1

ALLOA travelled north to face the Aberdeen Wanderers with hopes of starting 2020 with a win, but made the long journey back to the Wee County reflecting on a chance gone begging.

Indeed, if their defence had matched their attacking flair then they could have come away with a victory.

Lee Cairney was in good form with the boot in the first half, landing three penalties and converting Rab Truesdale's try just before the interval.

However, some poor first-up tackles let the opposition in for four relatively easy scores and meant that despite the impressive attacking intent, Alloa were trailing 26-16 at the break.

Despite the score-line, Alloa would still have felt like they could get something out of this match until a bizarre decision to award the home side a penalty try five minutes into the second period ultimately scuppered any chance of leaving Groats Road with the points.

The home side were attacking in the Alloa ’22 when their Centre knocked on close to the line. The covering Daniel Murrell made a tackle on the offending player only to be adjudged to have tackled the player without the ball and to make matters worse was then given 10 minutes in the sin bin.

The home side capitalised on the reduction in numbers when they broke away from deep in their own half following a period of sustained pressure by the visitors and scored under the posts.

Rab Truesdale scored an excellent try, his second of the match, midway through the second half which was once again converted by Cairney, however late in the game the home side once again attacked from deep and ran in the final score.

Despite what is a difficult defeat to take, Alloa can certainly take heart from this performance, especially the attacking side of their game, ahead of their second local derby of the season when Hillfoots visit Earlsfield on January 18.