Bishop’s Stortford beaten 24-21 at Plymouth Albion in National 1
Ill-discipline and crucial misses from the kicking tee led to frustration for Bishop’s Stortford as they went down 24-21 at Plymouth Albion in National 1 on Saturday (January 18).
The visitors, for whom Tom Mills received a late red card, battled hard and did earn a bonus point for being with seven points as they ran the aggressive sixth-placed hosts very close.
Stortford have now lost three games in a row - all away from home and all by no more than eight points.
They sit ninth in the table and welcome Sedgley Park, who are one place below them, to Silver Leys this Saturday (January 25).
Stortford put in a strong first-half display as both sides looked to run the ball.
And it was the visitors who scored first as Chris Smith punished a lazy Plymouth chase back to touch down Dan Powell’s kick.
The conversion attempt went wide, as did a penalty three minutes later after one of many offside decisions against both sides.
The home side took the lead with 20 minutes gone when winger Craig Duncan touched down following an attacking lineout from another offside penalty. Tom Putt added the extras. Stortford went back in front almost immediately as Sam Johnson recovered the restart kick and Alex Gilham caught Powell’s clever chip ahead on the full and dodged his way over. Mills converted.
The lead changed hands again minutes later with another converted Plymouth try from hooker Rhys Williams from a quickly tapped penalty after Stortford’s scrum came under a bit of pressure, being penalised twice in succession.
The away side fought back and were good value for an 18-14 half-time lead as Mills added two penalty goals.
The second half started well for the visitors as Mills registered another penalty following a few phases of attacking play.
That gave them a seven-point lead, but, from that point on, the game started to slip from their grasp with frequent penalties conceded. Their cause was not helped by the loss to injury of skipper Will Rogers with 48 minutes gone.
Stortford needed to produce some typically dogged defending as Plymouth increased the pressure and a yellow card to Mills after 50 minutes, for a deemed deliberate knock-on, led immediately to an unconverted try for Williams from a driving maul after the penalty was kicked to touch.
As the home side turned up the attacking heat even more, the penalty count against Stortford, almost inevitably, rose.
More great defence, however, kept their line intact until the 74th minute, despite further yellow cards to Ollie Jones after 64 minutes and Mills after 73, which became a red for a second deliberate knock-on.
The latter was followed immediately by a fourth Plymouth try which went unconverted, but took them into a crucial lead.
Facing no more than 14 men for the last quarter of the game, the home side, almost inevitably, dominated the final stages, but were unable to break down Stortford’s hugely committed defence again.
Stortford: Mills, C Smith, Biard, Pope, Gilham, Powell, Murphy; T Smith, Bell, Hill, Ferguson, Kiff, Jones, Johnson, Rogers. Replacements: Rayment, Coyne, Peck, Langworthy, Bolton.