When the sides met at Duffus Park in October, Howe of Fife took 62 points off Ardrossan Accies with no reply.
It was a different story at a bitterly cold Memorial Field when they had to fight all the way against the Ayrshiremen in their BT National League Division 2 clash to collect what could be a vital bonus point.
Howe led 15-12 at the break and, although they ran out 30-22 winners, it was a lot closer than they would have liked.
“Not pretty but five points is five points” was the comment of Howe coach Gary Horne.
Two tries by Rob Douglas and one each from Angus Guthrie, Hefin O’Hare and Alisdair Wilson, with Dom Martin adding a conversion and a penalty, clinched the extra point.
Howe move up to third in the table, three points behind Musselburgh but with two games in hand over the Stoneyhill side.
More significantly, they reduced Hamilton’s lead to four points after the Laigh Bent men struggled to beat Cartha Q/P by 23-20 with no bonus.
It may not have been the 92-0 size of win which Aberdeenshire inflicted on second bottom of the table Haddington in October but they came away from Neilson Park with a comfortable 56-5 result nevertheless.
Shire still sit in fifth sport in the table but have a few games in hand and did their differential no harm with a hat trick from Jonty Gray and a try each from Ian Downie, Wiaan Griebenow, Adam Blake, Stuart Crawford, Matt Emmison and Cameron Simpson.
A penalty try made it 10, of which Blake converted three.
The margin between Kirkcaldy and Falkirk was only seven points at Beveridge Park in October, but Kirkcaldy took sweet revenge at Sunnyside as they pulled off a last-minute shock result against the top-four side.
Falkirk led 19-13 at the break with tries from Logan Bonnar and Lawrence Miller, and Bonnar adding three penalties.
In the second half Dayle Turner added a second try to his first-half effort, Craig Letham converted them both and added two penalties, then two minutes into injury time banged over the winning kick for Kirkcaldy.
Falkirk’s only reply was a second-half penalty from Cieran Wood.
Dunfermline hosted winless and bottom of the BT National 3 table Murrayfield Wanderers at McKane Park and collected a 25-8 win. It kept them six points ahead of second- bottom Dalziel, who went down 37-0 at Lasswade but still have two games in hand.
Scott Gracie nabbed two tries, Craig Murray had one, and Zac Zropf slotted two conversions and two penalties.