BEDFORD ATHLETIC 19 KETTERING 10
Midlands One East
Bedford Athletic head coach Rowland Winter praised his players for their nine point win over Kettering and believes his side’s experience won them the game, .
The match ended in a nervous manner for Bedford as they nearly got punished for not finishing their rivals off. Kettering mounted late pressure but Winter believes their experience was what saw Athletic over the line.
He said: “I don’t think experience necessarily wins you games but that togetherness and know-how we have means we can see games out and beat teams when we are under the cosh. And I think that was one of the main reasons we won today.” Bedford started well but didn’t score until the half hour mark. A penalty five yards form the posts was taken quickly by Tom Orton. He played a cross field pass to right-wing Stephan Woodhead to finish at the line. The conversion was missed and after a Joe Daniel penalty was scored for the visitors the half time score read 5-3.
The second half started like the first but this time Ath found the try which eluded them at the start of the match. Luke Levitt was the scorer, but again the conversion was missed, this time by James Mortimer. Then, as the weather changed for the worse, Mortimer did find his range and converted a ten yard penalty to make the score 13-3.
Minutes later, the fly-half extended the lead with a superbly struck 25-yard drop goal. Bedford were controlling the game at this point but they had to wait until the 73rd minute before they scored again, Mortimer again with the penalty for 19-3.
A late try and conversion from Daniel turned out to be a mere consolation for Kettering who dropped their first points of the season.
Prop James Ross added: “It was tough today and they did come at us. But I thought we built a solid platform and handled the conditions better. They are a good side so to beat them in the manner we did was pleasing for everyone.”
