On a beautifully sunny autumn afternoon at the Goldington Road Stadium, Scottish attacked form the off & piled forward, overwhelming the Bedford defence but it was Bedford who got on the scoreboard first. Scottish had pushed Bedford all the way back to their 5m line within 2 minutes, the ball was shipped wide but Adamson was wise to it and read the play. He intercepted the final pass on his own try line and ran the length of the pitch to score a super solo try. Coulson couldn’t convert, LSFC 0-5 with 2 minutes played.

Moments later, Coulson atoned for his miss, scoring an easy penalty to extend Bedfords lead to 8, after 6 minutes played.

Scottish enjoyed a lot of possession and territory but were unable to make a mark on the game until Bedford made a mistake; from open play Bedford’s passing was poor, and from a mis-timed pass the ball bobbled around along the Scots 10m line. Bright was first to dive on it, he offloaded to Austin, who in turn sent it wide into the hands of the backs. Ingall put the ball over the top and into the 22, Stevenson won the foot race to the ball to score. The ever reliable Jennings converted to make it LSFC 7-8 Bedford with only 15 minutes gone.

On the 25 minute mark, from a 5m line out Bedford used their impressive diving maul to rumble to the try line, McElroy was at the back with the ball & dived for the line when he saw space open up in front of him. Coulson converted this time, LSFC 7-15 Bedford.

Bedford tried to play the ball out from their 22 throughout the game, but Mark Bright & Lewis Wynne repeatedly stopped them from making any ground. On the half hour mark, they tried again but Bright turned them over. Jennings took the easy points, LSFC 10-15 Bedford.

Both sides saw out the half with a couple of penalties each, so the teams went in LSFC 13-18 Bedford. London Scottish enjoyed a lot more possession and territory but were unable to make it count in the opening 40 minutes.

Scottish put more pressure on the Bedford defence in the second half; Bright & Tyas were constantly getting over the gain line, and Ingall, Vernon, Smith & Stevenson were causing all sorts of problems down each wing.

With 10 minutes played, Scottish were deep into the Bedford half, but were turned over and Bedford put boot to ball. Stevenson was back, and caught it in the Scots 22. He burst forward, broke through three tacklers and ghosted past two more to finish a scintillating run to score in the corner, it was a great piece of skill that even the Bedford fans were applauding. From the touchline Jennings could only steer the ball onto the post, LSFC 18-18 Bedford with 30 mins to go.

More pressure from Scottish led to another try ten minutes later, and the game was beginning to feel like it was getting away from Bedford. Down the wing Ingall darted through and made huge metres. Tackled by the touchline, the ball was recycled and Tyas grabbed it and made for the line. No conversion again, LSFC 23-18 Bedford.

From the re-start Scottish appeared to have completely switched off, Lane collected the high ball on his own 10m line and appeared to just run a straight line through the Scots defence. Scottish scrambled back, but he offloaded to Ryan Hutler on his shoulder who scored. No conversion from Coulson tied the scores at 23-23 with 18 minutes left on the clock.

Scottish put Bedford under all sorts of pressure; Vernon, Ingall, and Stevenson making nuisances of themselves down the two flanks. Despite the sustained pressure, Bedfords defence held out until the 79th minute when they were forced to concede a penalty at the breakdown in front of their own posts. Jennings scored easily, and this appeared to put the game to bed. LSFC 26-23 Bedford with about a minute left to play.

Bedford gathered the re-start and from the Scots 22m line went phase, after phase, after phase; throwing their bodies into contact to inch their way over the gain line. After 20+ phases, they’d made it to the 5m line, but the Scots defence kept them at bay; you feel feel the force of every tackle from the stands. Eventually Scottish conceded a penalty and instead of taking the points to get a draw, Bedford opted for a scrum.

2000+ fans were willing them over the try line, but they couldn’t get beyond the 5m line. They tried to ping the ball out wide, but the pass was poor and went to ground, Scottish hoofed the ball off the pitch and the ref called full time.

It was a frantic finish, but Scottish should have killed the game off well before hand; they could have easily had five or six tries. Scottish dominated possession, territory and looked dangerous every time they got the ball. Another stand out performance from captain Mark Bright, plus Richie Vernon, James Tyas and Rob Stevenson.