South West One (West)

Bideford 12, Bridgwater and Albion 23

A SOLID display saw Albion notch up their third successive victory to move up to seventh place in the table, writes Richard Walsh.

The side were being captained by Dan Kemmish, and the first points of the day came after 18 minutes Albion took the lead thanks to a 30 metre penalty slotted home by Stuart Heal.

Bideford were reduced to 14 players shortly afterwards but, despite Albion’s best attempts, the home defence remained solid.

The visitors then found themselves down to 14 men when Nick Spellissy was yellow carded, but just two minutes later Heal kicked another penalty to extend the Albion lead to 6-0.

A period of dominance from Bridgwater was eventually rewarded when Spellissy scored a try which Heal converted.

Just before the interval Bideford cashed in on an Albion error and winger Edmunds scored an unconverted try to make it 13-5 at half time.

Albion started strongly after the break and mounted a series of attacking moves, but they had to wait until the 69th minute for a try as Plummer went over in the corner.

Bideford again responded strongly and found room for full back Sanders to score a try which Snell converted to reduce Albion’s lead to eight points.

Albion bounced back with Plummer creating problems for the hosts and in the 77th minute Albion were awarded a penalty that made the game safe for them.

In the dying stages of the game as Bideford pressed hard and Plummer was yellow carded, but at the final whistle it remained 23-12 to Albion.

Simon Morrell was full of praise for his side after watching them notch up the double over a strong and combative Bideford side.

“It was superb, the boys played really well and this was one of our best performances of the season,” the Head Coach said.

“This season we have beaten Bideford both home and away which takes some doing and is quite significant - we lost down there by 50 points last year.

“This was a really encouraging performance, but we won’t be getting carried away!

"When the players came off you could see how much they wanted that win.”

Albion: James Collings, Oscar Tregenna, Taylor Buller, Luke Plummer, Ryan Barnett, Stuart Heal, Roger Drabble, Micky Norman, George Sluman, Nick Spellissy, Dan Kemmish, Ethan Trebble- Westlake, Matt Ransom, Harry Collins and Lewis Phillips.