Fakenham beaten on their travels

Fakenham suffered a 31-17 defeat at a clinical Bedford Athletic outfit on a plastic playing surface at the weekend.The 4G playing surface made for a novel experience for a number of the Fakenham boys, providing some extra bounce.A drizzle throughout most of the game caused the ball to be greasy and made handling the ball difficult.After falling behind to a converted try early on, . Fakenham struck back almost immediately.A knock-on by Bedford Athletic from the restart gave Fakenham a strong attacking platform, on the right-hand side of the 22.From the solid scrum, Fakenham moved it wide to the left where winger Ashley Stewart showed great strength and pitch awareness to get the ball down over the line as he was being bundled into touch.Fly-half Lloyd Marshall nailed an impressive conversion from the touchline to level the scores. It was then Bedford Athletic’s turn to score straight after the restart. A penalty in front of the posts gave Fakenham the chance to kick some easy points, with Marshall duly nailing the kick.After a back-and-forth opening quarter of an hour, Bedford Athletic took control with a couple ofquick-fire tries, with one conversion, to take a commanding 26-10 lead midway through the first half. The second half saw Fakenham dominate territory, but an impressive defensive effort from Bedford Athletic kept them at bay.And, despite being under pressure for most of the half, it was the home side that scored first. With only ten minutes left in the game, Bedford Athletic broke out of their 22 with an evasive run from their fly-half, who drew the last Fakenham defender before feeding his outside centre.They showed pace to get to the line despite being chased but missed the conversion attempt. Fakenham refused to be dispirited by this setback and continued to attack, finally getting their reward through veteran number eight Rob Ward.After a couple of Fakenham carries were repelled on the try line, Ward showed his power to fight to the line and get the ball on the whitewash in the left-hand corner.Marshall slotted another very impressive conversion with what was the final act of the game.Bedford Athletic deserved their win for being clinical when they were on top in the first half. Fakenham can be buoyed by winning the second half but could have come away with some points if they’d made all of their territory and possession count.The Barsham Brewery Man of the Match went to fly half Lloyd Marshall.Fakenham next host Mistley at the Stringer Ground on March 1.