National League One

Blues 37 Otley 12

The Blues kept up their challenge at the top of National League One with what ultimately proved to be a comfortable 37-12 victory against Otley at Goldington Road.

As was the case at Coventry, the home side were far from their best but had enough to see off the challenge of the spirited, but limited, Yorkshire outfit who remain winless at the wrong end of the standings.

An infringement in the first few seconds enabled Tom Rhodes to open the scoring with a well-directed penalty from the left touchline.

A forward pass in midfield cost the visitors the chance of an overlap as the Blues took their time to settle into any kind of rhythm.

The Blues' early possession was fractured at best and Otley's territorial superiority was rewarded with a second Rhodes penalty after 11 minutes.

A surging run from Paul Tupai led to the hosts' first venture into a dangerous position and, following a sloppy lineout, Billy Twelvetrees - taking over the kicking duties from the benched James Pritchard - notched a simple penalty from right in front of the posts.

In conditions tailor-made for their style of play, the Blues seemed strangely lethargic and out of sorts which was characterised by their persistent inability to retain the ball.

The stop-start nature of the game certainly didn't help but a second Twelvetrees penalty levelled things up just past the midway point of the half.

Otley didn't look like a side without a win to their name and the Blues barely resembled a side nicely placed in the higher reaches of the league table.

Rhodes' third penalty on the half hour restored Otley's advantage but this lasted all of five minutes.

A series of scrums metres from the Otley line eventually bore fruit as Will Harries was sent over in the right corner and Twelvetrees added the extras.

With the tide slowly turning, Brendan Burke's clever chip almost led to a second try a minute later and on the stroke of half-time, Gregor Gillanders barged over near the posts and Twelvetrees reached double figures with the boot.

A yellow card for Michael McCornish - kicking at the breakdown – preceeded Rhodes' fourth succesful penalty as the half time whistle went with the Blues 20-12 to the good.

The Blues looked a lot more assured at the start of the second period.

The referee, Nick Williams, persisted with his blow for everything approach and Bedford's seventh penalty of the afternoon resulted in another opportunity for Twelvetrees who made no mistake.

Ryan Owen bounced back from a thunderous hit by Kyle Dench to nearly score out wide but his kick was fractionally strong.

Mike Rayer made a trio of substitutions in the 55th minute to freshen things up and five minutes later Mouritz Botha - one of the replacements - crashed over and Twelvetrees struck the conversion to open up a 30-12 lead.

By now it was one-way traffic and Ian Davey was the next to score, theatrically diving over. As if to rub it in, Twelvetrees then slotted a drop-goal conversion after the ball had fallen off the tee.

A spell of pressure from the visitors came to nothing and the Blues squandered a couple of promising chances but they were able to close out the game in relative comfort.

It was not pretty and the Blues will play a lot better, but they are making a habit of winning games when at less than 100 per cent and that, when it comes to the crunch, is a useful habit to have.

BLUES: Burke, Harries, Roberts, Twelvetrees, Owen (Davey 55), Vass, Walshe (Chudley 66), Walsh (Cecere 55), Sammons (Richmond 60), Graham, Howard (Botha 55), McKay, Tupai (Harding 66), Daynes, Gillanders.
Subs: Pritchard.