London Scottish 38 Coventry 40 - Scottish reel as Cov refuse to dance to the tune of the piper

I sing, trailers for sale or rent

Rooms to let, 50 cents

No phone, no pool, no pets

I ain't got no cigarettes

Ah, but, two hours of pushin' broom

Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room

I'm a man of means by no means

King of the road

King of the Road - Roger Miller

Coventry Rugby - kings of the road.

Looking like a side well beaten by half time, a much improved second half performance spurred on by a single, kilted piper and a chorus or two of 'Flowers of Scotland' to summon up the spirit of Bannockburn, London Scottish very nearly completed a remarkable turnaround to take the points against a Coventry side that just couldn't, or weren't allowed to, repeat the dominance they'd enjoyed in the opening 40 minutes.

In the end, it was a case of the piper calling the tune but Cov refusing to pay.

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The RAG is always an enjoyable ground to visit.

It's not unlike the BPA in some respects in that it only has one stand across most of one side of the pitch and with crowds averaging not much over 750 (officially 811 yesterday but it felt like it was a good deal more tbf), supporters are always confined to a relatively small area generating a good, lively atmosphere. These days, the side opposite the main stand at Cov is fairly packed but this isn't the case at the RAG given the relative paucity of support, so with the supporters all amassed into just one area, it's often a noisy affair.

And with 150 Cov fans making the journey down, they were able to ensure they made themselves heard and for much of the game they drowned out the home support.

It was a lively and entertaining game with both sets of supporters having much to shout about and the atmosphere was only spoiled by a couple of irresponsible Cov fans who took it upon themselves to shout out as Connor Slevin attempted to win the game for Scottish with a 40 plus meter penalty in the final play of the match.

It was a very disappointing ending to what had been a fantastic game of rugby and for a couple of minutes it soured the mood of many Cov fans who were embarrassed by what had occurred. It wasn't our finest moment and I hope at some point this week the club issues a reminder of what is expected from supporters whether they be at home or travelling way.

The behaviour of those involved has tarred the good name of all Cov supporters, at least in the eyes of many of those in the crowd yesterday afternoon.

Scottish were right to tweet their frustration at the behaviour of just a couple of Cov fans (and it was only a couple); it certainly wasn't in the spirit of the game.

And if I'm going to have a pop at those Cov fans who brought shame on the rest of us in that final minute, it's only fair that I also make mention of the announcer too. I He didn't do Scottish any favours either and left a very bitter taste in the mouths of many of the Cov faithful.

I'm not excusing or condoning the conduct of those Cov fans mentioned above, but we had been wound up all afternoon by the completely over-the-top interjections from the PA, ranging from what were meant to be amusing asides but spoken whilst the game was in play to overt criticisms of refereeing decisions, interspersed with regular rabble-rousing exclamations that went far beyond what is acceptable and certainly seemed contrary to the spirit of the game.

I'm not a great fan of the announcer at Cov, but imagine him on steroids and you're not even close to what we were subjected to yesterday. I kid you not. Maybe it's something that Scottish fans feel is part of the entertainment, part of the RAG experience, but this travelling supporter was far from entertained.

Shocked, angered, thoroughly pissed off by it all, yes.

Entertained, definitely not.

Well, I've had my two penneth, so time to move on. If any Scottish fans want to come back and put a different slant on things, please do feel free to leave a message. I promise I'll respond.

The announcement that there'd been a pitch inspection at 10.00 am yesterday and that there was a second due at 1.00 pm took most of us travelling down on the two CRSC coaches by surprise. There'd been no mention of any concerns on the Friday on London Scottish's official Twitter feed and with the weather improving all the time, it sounded very ominous that a second inspection had been called for.

Given that we were within two miles of the ground when the 1.00 pm inspection was taking place, a decision to postpone the game so late on with no indication that the pitch wasn't previously playable wouldn't have gone down too well. Whilst it might not have led to an insurrection of Trump-esque proportions, there would have been plenty of very disgruntled fans.

The rumour was, and I hasten to emphasise it was no more than a rumour, Scottish hadn't been keen to go ahead and had it been left to them the game would have been postponed. When we arrived, there was no visible sign of the pitch been frozen and the top surface looked muddy and indeed it cut up a little during the game, but I guess the problem could have been that the underlying surface below the grass was still rock hard. The pitch seemed to play well otherwise and there were no obvious slips or slides or players complaining about its condition.

Josh and I did our usual circuits of the pitch - we must have been almost in double figures for the afternoon. One slight criticism of the facilities is that there's nowhere around the entire pitch that you can get a drink, coffee or otherwise. In order to do so, you have to go out of the 'ground' and across to the canteen area between the two main pitches which is a bit of a pain.

During the course of the pre-match warm up, I ascertained that James Tyas listens to country music (would have lost a fortune on that) and Will Rigg was in a different 'house' to the one I was in (we both went to the same school). So quite a profitable 90 minutes, then.

Josh loves the fact that players will say 'hi' before a game. He was very much a football fan prior to coming to Cov games fairly regularly three seasons ago and watching the odd Premiership/Championship (Villa or the Albion) game back, he was of the opinion that all professional sportsmen are aloof and above chatting to the average fan. Coming to Cov has shown him that need not be the case and being able to see players close up and even speak to them has given him a totally different perspective on sport generally.

Saying hello and meeting fans, particularly the younger ones, might not seem a big thing to a player, but it's potentially huge to younger supporters who are, by the very nature of their age, impressionable. It's something that Cov is pretty good at doing and the club deserves some credit for it, although I imagine it's left more to the individual rather than it being part of any club ethos.

Coventry dominated the first half and at 28 -17 looked to be heading towards a relatively straight forward win. An 11 points difference didn't reflect Cov's superiority in fairness, but three opportunistic scores meant that Scottish were still in a game that really Cov should have already been put to bed. All three Scottish tries were down to Cov mistakes, two charged down kicks and a Scottish defensive kick that their chaser was able to tap back. The ensuing bounce fell into the hands of the Scottish no 4 who raced through unopposed.

I did feel a bit sorry for Will Lane who was given a rare start but yesterday had the misfortune of being the player involved in two of the charged down kicks. In most other Championship teams, he would feature more regularly but with Will Chudley in the squad his appearances are always going to be limited. He's certainly got the ability but yesterday he was off by half time and left to ponder what might have been. Chudley won't be able to keep playing with quite the intensity that he's currently capable of producing and in Lane there seems to be a natural line of succession.

With Adam Nichol back, the front row was dominant. He and Nairau were solid and caused Scottish a fair few problems and with Salt and Chivers to come on as the 'bomb squad', it's beginning to look like Cov now have some really good options, especially as Nairau has the ability to swap sides.

The line out was a strength too yesterday, with Scottish in turmoil in the first half especially on their throw. In the second half they managed to sort most of their problems out, presumably after a half-time re-think. With so many Quins players in the squad (the consensus was 8 but I've not officially heard anything to confirm or deny that), set pieces are always going to be a problem, lineouts especially.

Although Scottish's defense was pretty good on the whole, our backs always looked capable of unlocking it. Rigg and Wand both scored and Hutler added another 2 to his Championship total (that's 8 in all). The second of Hutler's was perhaps a little selfish in that the easy option was to pass out wide to Tobi Wilson who would have gone over unopposed. Instead, Hutler decided to cut inside and had to work hard to get over the line. Had he not, then there could have been a couple of interesting conversations back in the changing room at half time. Wilson certainly didn't look too impressed at the time!

It's hard to say what changed after the break. A couple of mistakes from Pat Pellegrini (a big knock on and a quickly taken 22 restart that left him exposed and led to a penalty) didn't help - but that's what you get with PP. You'd certainly never want him to change his game and he's always a potential match winner even if occasionally he can be frustrating. I love watching him in the same way I used to enjoy watching Derek Eves, he's so charismatic on the pitch (and off it I imagine) and you never quite know what he's going to do next. But you do know at some point in the game he's going to create a bit of magic that will leave the oppostion reeling.

But Scottish's resurgence wasn't really about Cov's errors - they came back out fired up and presumably with the coaches' words still ringing in their ears. The crowd at last had something to shout about and it was suddenly an entirely different ball game. From 28-17 down, they fought back to take the lead 31-28 and despite Cov scoring through a Jordan Poole try, with 9 minutes to go they again scored to have a three-point advatage and with every chance of pulling off an unlikely win given their first half travails.

And this is where Cov should take the plaudits. They didn't panic and showed plenty of nous to play the game deep in the Scottish half. After several minutes of sustained pressure, Cov got the try they deserved and with the scores level, Pellegrini slotted over a straight forward conversion to give Cov a two-point lead going into the final minute. And he made sure he used the full 90 seconds available to him!

But there was still that final twist to come - the missed penalty by Scottish from 40 plus metres out. It was an eminently gettable 3 points too, but with so much at stake the pressure told on the 20-year-old Quins loanee and he was well wide, much to the relief of the Cov fans, the vast majority of whom kept respectfully silent as he took the kick.

So, another 5 points on our travels, but points that in the end had to be really hard fought over. We sat immediately in front of where Alex Rae was sitting and at the end of the game it's fair to say he didn't look too chipper. Whether it was because of the moronic behaviour of one or two Cov idiots at the end or the second half performance from his team or the constant irritation of the PA that was above and beyond what is acceptable for most of the game or even a combination of all three, who knows.

There were plenty of positives to come out of the game. (Oops - forgot to mention that Kvesic had another stormer - he was tireless all game, both defensively and going forward. For me his ability to do the dirty work around the breakdown, tidying up loose ball, was his real strength yesterday). However, with Pirates looking to be putting a decent run of games together, Cov will have to be a lot tighter and less profligate next weekend than they were yesterday, especially in that second half.

Ticket sales again look promising and a crowd near 4000 could well help Cov produce one of those very special performances that make the BPA such a difficult place to visit.

Come on, Cov!

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This one's for James Tyas.

Country music - I still can't believe it.