The strongest squad of the season featured a great deal of experience throughout the team with Muir and Gilmour making notable appearances in the backs.

Choosing to move the game to Lochinch might have backfired on Birkmyre as they lost a player to a red card in the first minute. Mathieson was the victim of a spear tackle, perhaps caused by the firm surface, which the referee penalised with a straight red and Lomond converted the resulting penalty to take a 3-0 lead.

With a front row of Dennison and both Norries, Lomond dominated the scrum whilst Drew McGinty and Scott Newport caused mayhem in the loose and controlled the line out.

The front five were assisted by a well balanced set of loose forwards featuring open side Todd, blind side Scott McGinty and number eight Urquhart.

The opening score came from a classic Lomond scrum. Urquhart broke and fed scrum half Mathieson who drew two defenders and timed his offload to winger Muir to perfection. Despite further pressure it took Lomond until the second half to score their second try. This time from classic forward pressure that allowed Drew McGinty to touch down giving Lomond a 15-3 lead.

Birkmyre rallied and managed to haul themselves back in the game with two converted tries after some impressive hard running from their back division. Despite dominating much of the game Lomond somehow found themselves trailing 17-15 with time running out.

The Lomond boys decided to keep the ball tight and rely on their dominant pack, but couldn’t seem to penetrate the Birkmyre five metre line. After spending the final five minutes camped on the opposition line, a perfectly executed catch and drive from a lineout resulted in Craig Norrie adding to his impressive try tally to make the final score 20-17. The veteran hooker is probably Lomond’s all time top try scorer, but few will have been more important.

Lomond will be buoyant ahead of a huge game at home on Saturday against Mull; a win will potentially lift Lomond out the relegation zone and set them up nicely for the end of season run-in. This coincides with Stephen Ledgerwood’s generous offer to pay for new junior rugby memberships and puts the club on the strongest footing it has had since the cup final and promotion run in season 2012-13.