Saturday's derby with Trinity was the usual committed affair, with the visitors edging the game by a solitary point, to keep up their pursuit of the top teams in the division, dropping Leith to 10th, and removing pursuit of a top 6 place from own hands.

The game started brightly for the Leithers, playing towards Lochend Road, with some early forwards dominance securing field position deep in the Trinity 22, where, once an attempted pushover try had been halted by the visitors, scrum half Fergal MacNamara hit Doug Watters on the gainline, and the standoff evaded the encroaching tacklers to go in under the posts for the game's opening score, converted by Kenny Dannfald for an early 7-0 lead.

With Leith looking relatively comfortable, and feeling confident, it was an error which gifted Trinity a route to the tryline, when after ball hit the deck, rather than dive on it and secure possession, the attempted fly hack upfield rebounded straight into the hands of the Trinity right winger, who beat a defender before outpacing the cover defence and diving over in the corner for an unconverted try, 7-5.

The game was very even by this point, with the Trinity back row coming more into the game, and their centres carrying well, and as the visitors began to establish their own game plan, they went into the lead with a blind side scrum move, with the right winger again evading defenders on his way to the tryline for a 10-7 Trinity lead.

Leith hit right back, when after MacNamara kicked well for territory, the forwards went close, before the backs worked a loop out wide between Stevie Muirden and Kenny Dannfald, before the former put Ross Marwick away to run over the cover tackler and race to the line for an unconverted score, and a 12-10 lead which they weren't able to hold onto into the break, as a midfield break from the visitors saw their outside centre (?) go over despite the best efforts of Dannfald on the tryline. A 15-12 lead for Trinity at half time.

Early in the 2nd half an innocuous scuffle near the touchline erupted somewhat, with two Trinity players sent to the sin bin, and Leith tighthead Bruce Connelly receiving a red card.

With the next 10 minutes played 14 v 13, Trinity defended well and there was no further scoring, until shortly after the visitors regained their full compliment, near the hour mark, a midfield break from lock Fraser Forsyth, followed by a pass that sadly wasn't filmed, but looked exactly like this, (the pass, not the break) to Luke McKinney saw the big number 8 go in near the posts, which once converted by Dannfald, game Leith a 19-15 lead going into the final quarter.

Trinity were to get their winning score however, when a break down the right wing, saw the replacement winger on that side awarded a try, despite protestations that he was short and in touch. The try was awarded for a 20-19 lead for Trinity and Leith had under 10 minutes to chase the deficit. The hosts kept ploughing away into the Trinity half in the final minutes, and squandered a couple of opportunities with forced offloads, the ball being stripped away from Watters as he neared the line and a missed Dannfald penalty.

It was a game that could've gone either way, and similarly, on another day gone more handsomely in favour of either side - in that context a narrow 1 point win for either side was about right, and congratulations to Trinity on shading it - perhaps (even) deservedly, based on winning the try count 4-3. No faulting the effort on either side, and an engaging game for the large numbers in attendance for President's Day.

We fight on.

Next up for Leith is a trip to Arboretum to face Inverleith, while Trinity host Hawick Linden. Both games on Saturday December 9, at 2pm.