Bedford Athletic staring down the barrel after defeat in relegation clash against Amersham & Chiltern

The defeat leaves the team seven points from safety with two matches to play and unless the side win their next match at Sudbury in two week’s time they will be relegated.

In a soft performance they failed to build on a 21-5 lead in the first half, running out of energy and ideas in the second half to lose to a late penalty.

The home team failed to deal with the first clearance kick of the game leading to sustained Amersham pressure ended only by a knock on.

From the scrum, Athletic found space on the blind side and winger Bradley McKenna broke a couple of tackles to race away for the opening score from 80m.

Michael Trigg, in his 100th game, added the conversion.

The visitor’s response was immediate as the home side gave away a needless penalty for sealing off a ruck. They kicked to the corner and drove the maul over the line for a try to hooker Joe Batt.

Athletic responded with pace and purpose, sending a rolling maul fully 20 metres before Trigg broke away and fed centre Dylan Edgington, who broke through the defence and found McKenna in support for his second try.

Immediately, the home side surged again, keeping the Amersham defence in retreat, and this time it was Harry Sawford-Smith who found the gap for the try, Trigg converting both for a 21-5 lead in the 15th minute.

Thereafter, Athletic began to lose their way.

Another pacy move lacked accuracy, and when the ball went to ground, there was no response from the home side as winger Tom Fawsett picked up and found full back Ben Harris in support for Amersham’s second try.

They scored again when a flat and predictable Bedford backs move led to an interception by centre Dan Kingsley, and with winger Bojan Cecaric converting both tries, the scores were back to 21-19 after 22 minutes.

It was Amersham who now started to create the scoring chances and they were unlucky not to have a bonus point try before the break.

One effort was ruled out for a forward pass and on another occasion the ball was held up over the line as Athletic struggled to break out of defence.

They did manage to kick a penalty during this period and nearly scored at the end of the half as a breakaway almost led to a hat-trick try for McKenna, but instead the move was penalised for a push as Bedford led 24-19 at half-time.

It was Amersham who created the first opportunity in the second half when from a line out they moved the ball quickly across the field and the home defence stood off winger Fawsett until too late as he scored under the posts, Cecaric converting.

Trigg responded with a penalty for the home side to retake the lead at 27-26, but then the turning point of the match arrived in unlikely fashion.

Amersham had two players sin-binned in quick succession for high tackles and, although Trigg kicked the second of these penalties for three points, the home side wasted their men advantage keeping play narrow and direct and kicking away possession in this period, never playing into the space now available.

In fact they managed to concede three points to a penalty to replacement Ben Pothecary, Cecaric being in the sin bin.

Restored to their full quota on the hour mark and trailing by a point, Amersham grew in confidence and dominated the rest of the match.

They were helped by a home side that was slow to the breakdown, erratic in their support play and inaccurate when they got the ball wide and created no further chances.

Amersham were again held up over the home side’s line before, from the goal line drop out, Lewis Ager was penalised for not rolling away at a ruck.

Cameron Brough was sin-binned for not letting the quick tap penalty go 10 metres and with a kick in front of the posts Cecaric converted to give Amersham a two point lead and the win.

Bedford Athletic played for over an hour without scoring a try and so failed to even collect the try bonus point, taking only the losing bonus point in defeat.