The club are currently in 9th position in National League 1 and, following their home defeat to GHA, the club decided to act.

Kelso went into the home match with GHA on a three game losing streak but started the game on the front foot at a very windy Poynder Park. The home side were playing with the wind in the 1st half and had the chance to take the lead on four minutes when GHA were penalised for holding on at the ruck but Andrew Skeen narrowly missed the chance.

The game was played in extremely difficult conditions and the wind was playing havoc which made expansive Rugby near on impossible. Passes were going nowhere near their intended targets as the wind was blowing the ball around and kicking into the wind was farcical at times.

After the first 20 minutes, the teams seemed to adapt to the conditions and the match became a battle between the two packs of forwards with the occasional break out from the backs. Some very good last ditch tackling and some handling errors mainly due to the conditions meant that we were approaching the half hour mark with no score at all.

Some very good Kelso pressure on the GHA line resulted in a penalty award to Kelso, Andrew Skeen slotted the three points after referee Mike Adamson had seen one too many ruck infringements from the visitors and Erik Cavan was given a yellow card as a result.

A 3-0 score line at half time was never going to be enough for Kelso as the wind was such a huge advantage but GHA were not finished in the first half and after a long spell in the Kelso 22 they scored a try after a quick tap penalty from full back Andrew Gillman, the ball was fed along the back division and left wing Euan Greer scored a try in the corner. Stand off Andrew Goudie kicked a near impossible conversion to make the half-time score Kelso 3, GHA 7.

The try before half time really set the tempo for the 2nd half with the visitors looking the stronger side for the bulk of the 40 minutes. Rangi Jerecevich made a lightning quick break from his own 22 in the first two minutes and was halted inside the Kelso 22 from a very good tackle from Murray Hastie and the momentum was lost.

Kelso then had a short spell in the GHA 22 and were looking like their first try was going to come through Callum Rowlandson but the ball was stolen in the tackle and pressure relieved by a good kick to touch from Goudie.

GHA scored their 2nd try on 55 minutes when a good spell of possession resulted in number 8 Grant MacDonald crashing over and Goudie made no mistake with the extra two points. The Glasgow side were now on the front foot and very much taking the game to the Tweedsiders, some excellent continuity between forwards and backs resulting in some fine breaks and only last ditch Kelso tackling or some knock ons prevented them scoring more.

The away side extended their lead on 66 minutes when referee Adamson awarded a penalty try for one too many scrum infringements, perhaps Kelso were lucky not to see a yellow card for this. Goudie added the extra points and it looked like GHA were well on track to secure a bonus point win.

The home side immediately took the game back to the visitors and looked to have scored an excellent try from Mark Wilson but play was brought back after a forward pass from Rowlandson. This would’ve been great timing and potentially made for a great ending to the game.

GHA secured the bonus point try on 76 minutes when Jamie Auld smashed through the Kelso defence to score under the posts. Goudie again slotted the two point conversion.

Kelso were to have the last say in the game when Frankie Robson scored a good try after some great work from Andrew Skeen and Richard Minto.

But it was a relatively disappointing display from Kelso who were without seven senior players through injury and have now lost their last four matches.