The Villagers had to withstand a late surge from Irvine on Saturday to hold onto their lead and win this contest 26-22, claiming the 4 try bonus point.

The opening stages saw both teams work hard in attack and defence, and the Villagers came close on 12 minutes, a good surge towards the visitor's try line halted by even stronger defence.

With Irvine reduced to 14 players for a high tackle the Villagers took full advantage, Alan Paul securing the opening try and Ru Anderson adding the conversion. Irvine hit back, and despite being short handed scored a well worked try on 25 minutes. The conversion went wide bringing the score to 7-5.

Minutes later Irvine were on target with a well taken penalty to nudge themselves into a narrow 7-8 lead. Uddingston had a chance to push a head just before the break, but handling errors let them down at the crucial stage.

Trailing at the start of the second half the Villagers upped the intensity and took only 5 minutes to score 2 well worked tries. The first came from Anderson, who then saw his conversion hit the upright, with Josh McPhail scoring the second under the posts from an excellent line break. Anderson was on target this time, and with a 19-8 advantage the Villagers were now looking more in control.

As the match entered the final quarter, last week's try scoring machine decided to add his name to this week's scoresheet. An excellent break from half way saw McKeown ghost past 5 defenders before touching down under the posts. Anderson added the extras to push the Villagers into a 26-8 lead with 20 minutes remaining.

To their credit, Irvine were not out of the match. A well worked try in the corner, excellently converted, saw them reduce the deficit to 26-15, and with only 3 minutes remaining their 3rd try of the afternoon, also converted, brought the score to 26-22, and a tense closing minutes.

The Villagers had enough in their tank to close the game out, securing the 4 try bonus point and moving themselves up into 2nd in the table.

Next Saturday, 14 September, the Villagers hit the road with the difficult trip to Fintry to face table topping Strathendrick. Kick off at 3pm