ACES HIGH !!!!!!!!!!

Glasgow Tigers 0 Loughborough Saints 35

Glasgow Tigers dream of a return trip back to the British College Bowl final came crashing down around them on their home turf at the weekend, turning in their worst performance of the season, going down 35-0 against the Loughborough Aces.

Having gone through the regular season undefeated and a coupon buster play-off win against Newcastle in the first round of the play-offs, this was an excellent chance for the Tigers to return to the National final.

But with along with other teams in the league, having to deal with the ridiculous situation of a five week break between their previous play-off matches, this was going to be the toughest challenge for the Tigers this season, against a Loughborough side who booked their semi place following a win over Hallam.

Garscube Sports Centre is not normally the place you would associate as a venue for a national sporting semi-final with an all-weather pitch closely fenced in, leaving not much rook to swing a cat.

Not that we would ever contemplate that of course!

But this was a special match – not only was it a British Sporting Semi Final – but this was Scotland v England – always a special occasion north of the border, whether it is football, tiddlywinks, Ludo etc and especially gridiron.

And with the build-up, they certainly did not disappoint.   The home side-lines were packed more than they have ever been, we had a couple of Pipers bringing the Tiger players on to the field and even belting out some tunes at the kick off.

Not to mention a couple of mounted police turning up later in the game for a quick nosey.

But unfortunately the build up to the match did not appear to have the desired effect on the Tigers, in fact more on the English visitors.

This was a large English squad that made the journey up north and appeared to have an advantage in terms of height and bulk and there signs of some mismatches in some of the positions.

Loughborough got the action underway and this was going to be the first real test for the Tigers to see how they would contain the early threat.

And even though the Tigers dug in hard trying to stand their ground on their own goal line, the English side opened their duck when quarterback Tom Worrall managed to push through a mass of bodies for the opening touchdown.

Tim Lewis nailed the conversion kick for a 7-0 lead for the visitors and it was time for Tigers offense, who had been dominant during the regular season to try and stamp their authority on the game.

But disaster struck for the Scots on the kick off that followed when they coughed up possession on the return with Loughborough recovering the ball on the Tigers 26 yard line.

And they were promptly punished minutes later when rusher Adam Hope bounced off two challenges to run in a second touchdown, with Lewis once again adding the conversion attempt.

Even though the game was in its early stages, the confidence appeared to have been knocked out of the Tigers and on the next drive, another special teams breakdown meant that the Scots turned over possession again.

They almost got punished when Worrall fired a precision pass up the middle to Jack Daley for a first down.

Minutes later, Worrall hooked up with Daley again exposing clear gaps in the Tigers defense pulling in an easy catch in the corner of the endzone, but the Tigers got a break when the score was chalked off.

However their luck was short lived at the start of the second quarter when a wide open Ross Hubbard pulled in a long pass for the third touchdown of the day with Lewis splitting the uprights again for a 21-0 lead.

Despite struggling in attack, the Tigers defense stepped up their work rate determined to contain the pressure from the English side and give them a fighting chance to get back into the game.

But Loughborough stretched their lead midway through the third quarter when a diagonal pass to John Mathieson made it 27-0 to the English side with Lewis once again nailing the conversion.

Come the fourth quarter, the Tigers, who hardly ever looked like scoring, were now trying to bring some respectability to the score line to a game that was now beyond their reach, but it was Loughborough who had the final word when Daley pulled in another easy touchdown, which was converted again by Lewis for a 35-0 final score.