Glasgow Defence Extends Clean Sheet Record To 6 Games

Tigers' DC Andrew McGowan On The Prospect Of Completing An Entire Season Without Conceding A Single Point...

As the old saying goes, defence wins championships, and with a remarkable record of zero points conceded in 6 games this season, the Glasgow Tigers seem on course to prove it true again.

Their 12-0 victory over Sunderland Spartans on Sunday sees them head into the final two games of their regular season with an untarnished defensive record.

Defensive coordinator Andrew McGowan is keen to big up the efforts of his charges.

“The game against Sunderland was impressive to watch,” he said, “because it was a tight game where the opponents threatened to score several times and it was impressive to watch our defence keep up that level of performance. It’s quite easy, once you get to the point where you’re confident that everything you’re doing has been working, to drop down a gear.”

At the start of the season, we tipped the Tigers to be one of the strongest teams in Tier 1, and McGowan explained how the defence’s incredible form has boosted the team’s hopes of going one better on last year’s play-off final. “It’s really good for the offence to be able to go out there and do what they do, knowing that if there’s a problem, they turnover the ball or get held to a three-and-out, they can have confidence that the defence will come on and help them out,”

“Confidence is high – to get to the finals you have to beat the best teams. We’re adding little things here and there, but we’re confident that if we keep doing what we’re doing on defence, we can stop the best offences in the league.”

"We Try And Keep It Simple, So That The Guys Can Play Quickly And Aggressively."

Starting outside linebackers David Ellen and David Brooks, both seniors, have been the key cogs in this defence for years, and came in for special praise from Andrew for their consistent stopping power. He also gave a shout out to their deep corps of first and second-year defensive backs.

“From a playbook point of view we try and keep it simple, and we have that so that the guys can play quickly and aggressively,” he added.

“It’s been nice to go on a streak – it adds its own pressure, because not only do you want to win, but you want to make sure you don’t get any points scored against you.”

With only two games remaining, we asked Andrew where a season-long clean sheet would rank among his achievements in football. He indicated that it would be a personal highlight, but would mean little unless it led to success for the team.

“Getting to the final last year was pretty special, and not conceding a point all this year would be good, but it doesn’t mean anything if we get kicked out of the first round of the play-offs. It’s more important that we go as far as we can as a team, but keeping the clean sheet would be a cherry on top.”

The Tigers will round up their regular season with away trips to Lancaster and Northumbria. Both sides are out of the running for the playoffs, but Glasgow have only scored 8 points in their two previous away games this season, so expect a pair of tight games.