Defeat in final league game as Bedford Athletic prepare for play-offs

They finished in fourth place inside the top five, thereby qualifying for the promotion play-offs, but outside of the top three so failing to gain home advantage.

Their first play-off match in what is a knockout process is away to third place Broadstreet on Saturday for the right to meet the winners of the match between Market Harborough and Peterborough to determine which team advances to the later play off stages from Midlands 2 East, Northampton Old Scouts having been promoted as champions.

In what was an even contest throughout at Stamford, the visitors just lacked the discipline and composure at key times to prevail in a match where eight tries were shared.

Playing against a very strong wind in the first half, Athletic had no kicking option and so had to run the ball.

This paid dividends inside the first four minutes as they carried the ball through several phases up the middle of the park before captain Steve Smith broke through the last line of the defence to score his side’s first try, Leo Mortimer converting.

With the wind, Stamford were always going to prosper from a decent amount of territory and possession, and they turned this pressure into points.

Although the visitors defended well for periods, they were undone on 10 minutes when a missed tackle in midfield allowed Ed Cox to break through to the line for his side’s first try, and then on 18 minutes when scrum half Fraser Hutton spotted an undefended ruck, he broke through for his side’s second try, both of which he converted for a 14-7 lead.

As the game ticked into its second quarter, Bedford Athletic started to gain more possession but failed to translate this into convertible chances, despite early scrum dominance, and when they did concede possession Stamford made good use of the wind to push them back into their own half.

This inevitably led to the third try when, from a midfield scrum, Stamford once again broke through the defensive line a little too easily with full back Iain Downer profiting in a race to the posts to dot down his side’s third try.

Hutton made it 21-7 on the half-hour mark with the conversion.

Athletic stormed back into the match in the final 10 minutes of the half with two very similar tries.

Both were as a result of finding space down the left wing, both were from breaks by Steve Smith and both were finished off by wing Josh Cassell. Neither were converted by Mortimer.

Having fought back into the match, the visitors had a scare when they allowed the second Stamford kick-off to bounce into touch just short of their own try line, lost the defensive lineout and just managed to keep Stamford out through a scrambling defensive effort to win a scrum and trail 21-17 at half-time.

Bedford Athletic surrendered the initiative at the start of the second half.

With the wind they should have gained good territory and possession.

Instead they kicked a penalty on the halfway line dead, then lost their discipline and conceded 10 metres at the next penalty for backchat to the referee and subsequently allowed Stamford into their 22 where eventually they won a penalty in front of the posts which Hutton converted for a 24-17 lead with half an hour remaining.

Athletic started to get back into the match with some better kicking getting them into the Stamford half, and when Tom Orton took a quick tap penalty on the hour mark, they had the Stamford defence in retreat with Nathan Litchfield getting the scoring pass away to Lucas Nisbett-Hadaway, who crossed for the bonus point try, Mortimer’s conversion tying the scores up at 24-points all.

Just as Athletic looked like they might seize the initiative with a series of attacks, ill-discipline when Stamford broke away saw a high tackle and a yellow card on 67 minutes for full back Louis Haley saw the visitors have to play out most of the remainder of the game with 14 men - and eventually the Stamford pressure told.

When they hooked what should have been a Athletic defensive scrum, the turnover ball allowed them to spread the ball wide to the left wing where Freddie Chapman crossed in the corner for the winning try.

There was no time for a response from the visiting side.