Livi make it 5 out of 5 with a bonus point win against a determined Portobello side

After the rain of the previous week , Livi were happy to kick off on saturday with the sun shining and against a strong breeze , The pitch was good to soft however some good work by the Almond Park ground staff had cleared it of some standing water. From the Kick off Livi looked sharp and built some good phases of possesion pushing deep into the 22 , some strong rolling Mauls edged them closer to the try line however a mixup in the understanding of the pitch markings meant Hooker Lee Barrett dropped on the 5m line thinking it was the try line and even after a mild celebration by the Livi Forwards their was no chance of score only a bit of embarrassment for the hooker.

Portobello looked a determined side and one of the strongest scrummaging teams Livi had came up against and after soaking up some pressure built so of their own pushing deep down the field only to be thwarted by a pink wall of defence. The Match was building well and both teams were looking for the break through , thankfully for the home support it came for Livi after some good pressure on the Portobello backs captain Andy McMahon charged down a kick which allowed his fellow centre Ross Neil returning after a 3 week absence to score under the posts , Edwards hit the conversion to take the score to 7-0 . As Livi have done in previous weeks the followed up with another quick score good ball retention by the forwards pushed the ball out to Naysmith he then fed Edwards who jinked past the first defender to push into the 22 and with a neat offload he released the supporting Naysmith who crossed in the Corner , the kick was missed bringing the score to 12-0 after 20 mins.

Portobello who had some hard running backs never gave up the fight and responded quickly taking advantage of a penalty just outside the 22 to take the score to 12-3. Livi knew that they would have to work hard and although their shape was good some basic handling errors were letting them down. However there pressure defence was doing well and like many other weeks the quickly capitalised on a forced error by the opposition , returning Talisman scrum half Bruton snipped on the ball and fed McMahon who then released winger Caldwell for his 4th try of the season , Once again the kick against the wind was too tough for Edwards and the score was 17-3 with 25 mins played.

Like many of the previous weeks livi failed to put the opposition to the sword and let Portobello back into it firstly through a penalty to bring the score to 17-6 then after a quick tap soon after they crossed in the corner although the crowd did seem aggrieved that the final pass may have been forward. This meant the referee blew for half time with the score at 17-11.

Livi hoped the wind in the second half would allow them to put more pressure on Portobello and they once again worked some good phases of play in the first period of the scond half culminating in the Bonus Point score by Prop Scott Paris who scored his first try for Livi for many a year after a strong run from 15 yards out Edwards hit the conversion to take the score to 24-11.

By mid way through the second half after another penalty kick from Portobello the score was 24-14 , and Livi were finding hard to form any continuity as the penalty count was going up and up , much to the dismay of the large home support who were understandably questioning many of the decisions. However they still went on with the job in hand and after some good touch finding by Stand off Bolan they worked the ball into the Portobello 22 , Bruton then pushed down the blind to send replacement back row Graeme Steel in to bring the score to 29-14 . Livi closed the game out with 10mins to play when Caldwell crossed in the same spot to bring his season tally to 5 and the score to 34-14 and despite some good pressure by Portobello in the closing stages this is how it stayed when the final whistle blew.

The Livi coaches will be happy with the result although there does still seem to be more to come , they will be hoping to continue building performances when they cross the border to play Berwick on saturday as they will be wanting to be getting to the top of their game as a win will set up a potential top of the table clash in the next home match against Preston Lodge.