FIRE STARTER !!!!!!!!!
Stirling Clansmen 6 Paisley Pyros 14

It is tough life competing in the British College League, particularly if you are coach.

Unlike the other levels in the British game, it is very difficult to maintain consistency in your playing strategy, when you could lose up to 90% of your squad through graduation.

If a team has a successful season, the chances of them turning in repeat performance can depend on how many players return for another campaign and how well the new recruits settle into the system.

But when you face a major revamp of your squad from the previous campaign, it is a problem that is faced by all college teams at some stage.

Today reigning BUAFL Scottish Conference Champions, Stirling Clansmen got an indication of a tough season ahead, when they lost their opening home fixture of the 2008 season to a battling Paisley Pyros 14-6.

And the Clansmen who had the much larger squad of the two teams, were fortunate that because of a series of penalties on the Pyros part, the scoreline could have been a lot more convincing.

Having seen their squad totally decimated in the close season, this is a mere shadow of the Stirling squad that totally dominated the Scottish Division, racking up 34 unanswered points against Paisley in one of those games last year.

As for the Pyros, they were under new management, under the guidance of West Coast Trojan Lineman, Ian Smith as Head Coach, backed by Gary McNey and others.

And with some familiar BAFL faces in the Pyros squad, the signs were there that there was going to be no repeat results of last season.

Watching their opening drive, the evidence was there to see that the Paisley outfit were looking to show a new style of attacking football that has been missing from their set up in recent years.

The Pyros set their stall out early when the visitors took the ball to the Clansmen 16 yard line with some inspired running from Brian 'Bud' McFerren.

On four and short inside the Clansmen redzone, McFerren powered through for a first down. Then on the next play, the Trojans cornerback took the ball into the endzone, but the score was chalked off for holding.

The Pyros appeared to be losing their discipline, undoing the good work from earlier on and resorted to an all or nothing pass on a long fourth down attempt, when a pass from Ben Alkureishi found Mick Rankin at the far corner, but the ball bounced off his fingers resulting in a missed scoring opportunity.

The Clansmen could not mount an effective response on their next possession and soon found themselves in trouble when Alkureishi delivered a text book pass up the middle to Tal Peer, who met little resistance was in for the opening touchdown.

Throughout the second quarter the Paisley outfit were posing the biggest threat, where as the Clansmen were having great difficulty exerting some pressure in the Pyros endzone. In fact they could not get into their half.

However they finally made the breakthrough in the third quarter when Stirling quarterback Luis Stevenson fired a long bomb that hell into the hands of receiver, Shane Malone, giving him a clear run all the way to the endzone for the tying score.

As in previous Pyros campaigns, the visitors appeared to be losing some momentum through injuries to key players where as the Clansmen appeared to be finding some much needed confidence.

But the momentum was back in the visitors favour when the Pyros got their second wind and were starting to push the home side on the back foot.

A series of needless penalties gave the Clansmen some respite but the visitors managed to regroup and stepped up the pressure at the start of the fourth quarter, recovering a Clansmen fumble at the Stirling 18 yard line.

However they could not punish the home side for the turnover and it appeared that another opportunity had gone a begging.

It looked as if the game was heading for a stalemate as both defenses standing their ground.

But the Pyros, still hampered by some needless penalties, looked the more determined to finish things off and mounted a late charge during the final minute of the game.

And they got their just reward when Keiran Phillips, from a few yards out, powered through for a touchdown, which he followed up with a two point conversion run, rounding off a deserved victory.