Derby Day Delight for Livi

In the last 3pm kickoff game of the year Linlithgow entertained Livingston at Mains Park, Livingston Made a few tweaks to their starting team with Aaron Johnston and Alasdair Scobie both unavailable from the team that defeated RHC last week, they were replaced in the starting line up by Aaron Ferguson and Kev Buchan respectively for both players first starts of the league season, Livi also welcomed back player coach Scott Paris to the front row with Miki taking a place on the bench.

The game kicked off and as was expected Linlithgow were all over the visiting team in the opening 15 minutes, having missed on penalty opportunity after 2 minutes the Lithgae kicker made the score 3-0 with a relatively simple shot at goal, despite the continual pressure from the home sides formidable driving maul Livingston's line remained intact, this was made all the more difficult by losing Second row Jamie Miller to the sin bin after 20 minutes for collapsing the maul.

Livingston's defence repelled the Linlithgow attack and following a break from winger Jamie King into the Linlthgow 22 from the lineout simple quick hands along the backline put winger Ross Neil in for the first try of the game the conversion by Dean Edwards was unsuccessful and the score was 5-3 to Livi. within 5 minutes of this Livingston scored again, following a charge down from Neil he fed the ball inside to fullback Edwards who fed the ball inside to centre Andy McMahon for a simple run in under the posts ,Edwards converted to make it 12-3. a penalty from Edwards left the halftime score at 15-3 to Livi

The second half started with a bang for Livi as from a scrum just inside the Linlithgow half Scrumhalf John Bruton broke blind outpacing the covering defence he passed to Neil on the angle and the big winger showed great pace to score his second try of the game to make the score 20-3 again Edwards converted 22-3.
Linlithgow lost their second row to the sin bin and their misery was compounded when a half break from centre Kev Buchan created space for standoff Craig Bolan to find centre Andy McMahon in space and he powered through a couple of ineffectual tackles for his second and Livingston's Fourth Try thereby securing the bonus point for the visiting side,Edwards again converted making the score 29-3.
Livingston were not done there and following a scrum in the Linlithgow 22, Bolan found Winger Jamie King who committed 2 men before his perfectly timed offload found McMahon who scored his 3rd try of the match again Edwards conversion was successful 36-3 to Livingston.Edwards then hit a second successful Penalty to extend Livi's lead to 39-3.

With time running out for Linlithgow to score Livingston took advantage of a mix-up in midfield with Bruton finding Neil again for the winger to Scorch home for his 3rd try of the day, again Edwards was successful and with the score at 46-3 Livingston where still hunting for another score for them to break the half century for the second time this season and this was duly supplied following a break from replacement second row Stephen Hay, he was brought down just short of the try line but his silky offload from the floor was latched onto by veteran Number 8 Graeme Steel to power over the line to complete the route as the kick was missed with the score at 51-3 Livingston lost Scrum Half John Bruton and Replacement Back Row Simon Reynolds to 2 yellow cards but even reduced to 13 men for the remainder of the game Livingston held out for an impressive win away from home watched by a large visiting contingent who enjoyed the first Derby match of the season helped in no small part to the Livingston packs dominantion in the tight creating numerous attacking opportunities for half backs John Bruton and Craig Bolan to use their backline to exploit.

Livingston now look to take this away form to Dunbar on 3rd of November.