LEIGHTON Buzzard’s place in the Midlands 1 East League is still hanging by a thread after they suffered a 14th defeat in 18 games at home to Ilkeston on Saturday, despite scoring five tries.
The 25-29 loss was also their fourth in a row after a decent spell towards the end of last year which saw the men from Wrights Meadow win three out of five.
However, it has been a story of so near yet so far in recent weeks as Buzzards have gone down to teams in the top half of the table, and that was the case again on Saturday with mid-table Ilkeston snatching the points after the hosts had again raced into an early lead.
And to make matters worse for Buzzards, relegation rivals Nuneaton saw off Spalding to move to within a single point of them in third from bottom place, plus they have a game in hand.
Buzzards’ four victories this season have all come at home, but they are going to need to win away in the coming weeks as they visit Towcestrians and Market Rasen in the next two weeks before returning home to play Bedford on March 3.
Matches against Nuneaton and bottom side Coalville will follow in March, but Buzzards need to pick up points before then to make sure they aren’t the side going into them in the bottom two.
Despite suffering a heavy defeat to Towcestrians seven days earlier, Ilkeston started strongly on Saturday, but the home defence prevented them from crossing the try line.
Buzzards were solid in the scrum and looked sharp when the ball was spun out to the backs, with only a dropped ball or knock-on preventing the first score of the game.
But the hosts soon worked their way through with Cohen forcing his way over after 22 minutes. And that was soon followed by a second try when Taylor found a way through to touch down.
Both conversion attempts were missed, but with half an hour played Buzzards were 10-0 to the good and looking comfortable.
However, Ilkeston managed to get a try back just before half time when their pacey backs managed to stretch the home side’s defence and score. The conversion was added by the full back to make it 10-7.
Buzzards were not finished though and a fine lineout resulted in captain Jenkins going over for a try out wide just on the stroke of half time, giving the hosts a 15-7 lead going into the changing rooms and hopes were high that they would finish the job in the second half and pick up a vital victory.
But the first 20 minutes of the second half saw the match change in the visitors’ favour, with Buzzards forced into three changes due to injuries, and the Ilkeston backs began to run with the ball – resulting in three tries and one conversion to turn the game completely on its head at 15-24 to the away side.
It wasn’t quite game over yet though as the hosts went over for a fourth try. Their forwards were deep in the Ilkeston 22 which allowed the ball to be spun out to the backs and full back Siddon stretched over the line to narrow the gap to one more score at 20-24, but again the conversion attempt was off target.
Ilkeston soon made the game safe though as with four minutes to play a series of moves, which included a collision in the midfield and a suspicion of a knock-on, saw the visitors score out wide to make it 20-29.
However, Buzzards would have the final say at least when a quick penalty put replacement Magill through to score their fifth and final try of the match, securing the hosts two welcome bonus points for their efforts.
More rugby in Tuesday’s LBO