GREENOCK Wanderers turned in a Jekyll and Hyde performance against West of Scotland as Grant Sweenie's men recorded another defeat, writes John Dyer.

Despite going down to their second defeat at Fort Matilda of the campaign, there was a small silver lining with the Greenock men salvaging a losing bonus point after a brave fightback in the second half.

It all started brightly as Wanderers took an early lead courtesy of a Michael Frizzel penalty.

This was very short lived as stand-off Leigh Tyley, in attempting to clear inside his 22, had his kick charged down and following up visiting stand-off Nicholson scored and converted to put West in to a 7-3 lead.

Shortly after some dominant play by West's backs, Wanderers were caught offside and the resulting penalty was converted by Nicholson for West to stretch their lead to 10-3.

A further penalty to the visitors for offside saw Wanderers fall further behind by 13-3.

Wanderers were dominant in the set scrum but were unable to capitalise on this as handling errors in the backs were all too frequent.

Another backs move by West was brought to a halt by a try-saving tackle from full-back Smith.

However, the resulting line-out saw West increase their lead with a try by forward Cochrane which was converted to give West a 20-3 after 20 minutes.

Shortly after West were reduced to 14 players as centre Cuthbertson was yellow carded for a deliberate knock on.

Wanderers had a spell of pressure with good passages of play but were being let down by a combination of poor line-outs and a lack of penetration by the backs.

Matters were compounded when Wanderers' scrum-half Andrew McDougall was sin binned for deliberate offside at a scrum.

Some barging runs by forwards Louie Hoodless and Martin Lavelle, who were both prominent for Wanderers, resulted in a try for Connor Gibson and converted by Frizzel to make the score 20-10 after 26 minutes.

West began to dominate in the last five minutes of the half and a deft kick behind the Wanderers defence by their stand-off to let centre Booth score - followed by a conversion - made the half-time score 24-10 to West.

The Fort Matilda side had a mountain to climb in the second half if they were going to salvage anything from the game.

Play ebbed and flowed between both ends with neither side dominating enough to turn the scoreboard over.

Wanderers made a couple of substitutions in the forwards in an effort to make their dominance tell on the scoreboard.

They were duly rewarded with a further try by Hoodless, who was having a fine game, making the score 24-17.

After a good spell of pressure by the hosts, West's left winger took advantage of a dropped pass by Wanderers' backs to kick ahead and gather the ball to score under the posts.

This was converted to make it 31-17.

The home side had it all to do if anything was to be gained from the match. Their cause was helped when West were reduced to 14 men for an infringement by their left winger with five minutes to play.

Wanderers forced West into their 22 and were rewarded by a try by Hoodless which was converted by Frizzel to make the final score 24-31 to West.

Wanderers play bottom side Strathmore away on Saturday and it is essential for Wanderers that a win is delivered.

l Greenock Wanderers are sponsored by MM Search.