At the Christmas break Bridgwater and Albion find themselves in 11th place in Regional 2 Tribute South West, with 15 points from their 13 matches, three of which have been won, writes Richard Walsh.

Sherborne are at the the bottom with 14 points from as many games.

The Albion season started on a hot early September afternoon with an away game at Wellington where  despite looking to be well placed for much of the game it was the hosts who triumphed.

This was followed by a Friday evening trip to Chard where playing in front of a large crowd and under the lights the South Somerset side dominated for much of the time and ran out the comfortable winners.

With players unavailable and others injured the Albion suffered further defeats at home to Crediton and away at Newton Abbot.

When North Petherton came to College Way the hosts were still without a victory to their name and so it remained as their near neighbours ran out the winners 40-18.

The side were without a game the following week, and that space seemed to give the squad time to regroup and regain some confidence because when Sherborne visited for the first league game in a while it was the hosts who won  20-0 much to the delight of the players and their loyal supporters.

Sadly two more defeats followed- at home to Teignmouth, in a game that they would have hoped to have done better in before suffering a heavy defeat in Cornwall at the hands of St Austell.

Despite their lowly status and run of defeats one thing that has remained constant throughout the campaign to date is the total commitment that every player has shown from the start to the end of each game. Everyone who has pulled on an Albion shirt has given it their all.

The Albion’s second league victory came in another Friday night game, the day before Carnival when the good sized crowd swollen by a number of travelling Sidmouth supporters saw the hosts hang onto win a close and exciting match 16-15.

When the team travelled to play at Truro they gave another wholehearted performance and were unlucky to come away empty handed.

On their return to College Way two weeks the home side found Wadebridge Camels too strong and much better able to cope with the gale force winds- but again there was no doubting the squads resolve.

The home match against Chard was a belter from a spectators viewpoint and Albion will feel that they deserved more than the losing bonus point they got for all of their endeavours.

With the away match against Crediton falling foul of the weather the last home game before the break against Newton Abbot looked in doubt until the last minute but thankfully the thaw arrived in time and the Albion boys delivered another solid all round performance to run out 32-26 winners.

Its been a tough four months to the start of the 2022-23 season but the squad now seems to be gelling together and working well as a unit so hopefully the second part of the campaign will see them enjoy more successes and climb up the table.

Its going to be a tough start though because they start January with three away matches, the first of which is at North Petherton on January 7th before hosting St Austell on 28th.