Roughride for Pyros

Paisley Pyros 0 Caledonian Roughriders 24
Pics C/O Tommy Graham

It was first blood to Cally in the first leg of this season’s Renfrewshire Derby romped home to a convincing road win against the gutsy Paisley Pyros.

As in previous seasons, the Pyros were victims of the numbers game before the start of the match being outnumbered almost 2-1 in terms of squad numbers alongside their Renfrewshire neighbours.

But that did not have any real reflection on the score line during the early stages with the home defense putting up some stubborn resistance during a hard fought first quarter against the Cally side who were looking to build on last weeks opening win over Sunderland.

However with a number of the Pyros team having top play both ways, the cracks were starting to emerge during the latter stages of the first quarter when Andrew Steel stepped up a gear powering through a mass of bodies for a first down at the Pyros 11 yard line.

Then two plays later, the Cally rusher broke through again, finding a gap in the Paisley rear guard for the opening touchdown.

The score appeared inject some urgency into the Pyros attack as they started the second quarter in a much more positive fashion when Alasdair Klimowicz turned in a big gain for the home side, running up the middle finishing inside the Cally half.

The Pyros were now playing with a lot more confidence and hit the Roughriders again when Ross Shaw picked off Tal Peer moving the home side to the Roughriders 19 yard line.

However the visiting defense managed to stand their ground giving up only a few more yards, forcing the home side to try their luck with a field goal attempt but the kick was blocked.

The Roughriders were threatening again when Lewis Cameron found Ryan McCluskey but penalties resulted in the visitors pushed behind the line of scrimmage.

Then on the next play Steve Adamson sprinted down the far side into the endzone, but the score was chalked off due to a penalty.

The defensive battled continued until just over two minutes of the half remaining with the Paisley defensive backs guilty of ball watching after Cameron nailed a precision pass to McCluskey, who romped home to a second touchdown.

The Pyros had another lucky escape early in the third quarter, when some more defensive frailties from the home defense saw Ian McVey grab the ball inside the corner of the endzone.

But the score was chalked off again for an illegal formation penalty.

The pressure continued to mount on the Pyros as they embarked on a new drive from deep inside their own half.

Then disaster struck for the home side, after some intense pressure from the Cally defense saw Ross Graham strip the ball from the Pyros quarterback inside the endzone for a third touchdown.

It looked as if the visitors had struck again on the next Paisley drive when Michael Brannigan got in the way of a Shaw pass and talking the ball all the way back to the endzone.

But penalties continued to hamper the Roughriders again with another touchdown disallowed for a holding penalty.

Even though the Pyros continued to dig deep into their reserves, fighting for every ball that came their way, the lack of depth in their squad showed as they continued to struggle to hold off the Cally attack.

And they increased their lead early in the final quarter when Andrew Coulter sided by some excellent blocking ran in another score for the Roughriders.

Then inside the final seconds of the game, the visitors drove home a final nail in the coffin when Chris "CNT" (Dont Ask: ED) Gordon intercepted Shaw again and took the ball back for the final score of the day.