Bedlinog - 17

DESPITE leading the game against second-placed Division Two East side Bedlinog for long periods, Abergavenny were denied by a late try that condemned the claret and ambers to sink ever deeper into the relegation mire.

And with a table-topping Tredegar side who are currently flying head and shoulders above all competition due to visit Bailey Park this Saturday, things are not getting any easier for an ailing Abergavenny who have four remaining games in which to prove their worth.

"It was a disappointing result but not a disappointing performance against Bedlinog," explained head coach Gary Lawrence post match.

"For the first 15 minutes our full-back Dan Haymond and centre Stuart Davies cut Bedlinog to ribbons with some superb long-distance attacks, which unfortunately just fell short of their try line."

Frustratingly for Aber, the in-form Haymond pulled a hamstring early on which slightly changed the dynamic of their play. Nevertheless, the claret and ambers still went 6-0 up thanks to a Steve Lang penalty and drop goal.

Bedlinog returned with an unconverted try of their own to leave themselves trailing by one point, but another Steve Lang penalty made the score 9-5 to Aber as the two teams went into the interval.

Into the second-half and the visitors touched down for another unconverted try and a slender one point lead.

With the game finely hung in the balance it could have swung in either direction, but unfortunately for Aber all paths led to Bedlinog on the day as the home team grabbed a late converted try and retained their advantage until the final whistle.

"We kept fighting right until the end to try and salvage something from that game, but it just wasn't to be," Lawrence told the Chronicle.

"If we had grabbed a try I'm sure we could have turned things around, but luck wasn't on our side. Apart from picking up three yellow cards during the course of the game, we also lost our blindside flanker Russell Hoggins to a very nasty knee injury, and when you partner this with Haymond's hamstring, it wasn't the best of days at the office for us."

Lawrence added, "However Bedlinog won fair and square and we've now got to focus on Tredegar. There leading the league by about 15 points at the moment and during our last encounter they beat us 33-11.

"No-one really gives us a shouting chance against them this time around, but we'll be stepping out in Bailey Park on Saturday looking for nothing less than a win, and hopefully if some of the other results in the league go our way on the weekend, we'll definitely see an improvement in our own standing by this time next week."

Abergavenny will play Tredegar at Bailey Park this Saturday with a 2.30pm kick-off.