Bulldogs Lose In End to End Game

Birmingham Bulldogs Rugby League FC went down to a second consecutive, narrow defeat against a resilient Telford Raiders side. With ball in hand, Brum looked to have the edge, but at the crunch point in the match, their defence was breached a little too easily.

Birmingham could hardly have had a better start: a break by Stephenson saw him feed debutant second rower Lewis Snowden who crossed in the corner.

However, if the host had any thoughts of a scoring spree they were soon put right as Telford put in a grubber kick after the fifth tackle and stand off Paul Szehofner dived on the loose ball in goal to claim the try.

Spurred on by this, Raiders then took the lead for the frist time as second rower Nathan Davies touched down.

Back came Brum: a brace of tries from speedy full back Ned Stephenson, the first well converted by centre Danny Bancroft put Bulldogs ahead again at 14-8. The visitors responded with a try from left-winger Luke Roberts.

Last word of the half went to Brum as Bancroft ran through the narrowest of channels down the left touchline to score in the left corner.

The second half was barely a minute old when Telford levelled the score: a strong run from Roberts took him over fro his second try, scrum half Ben Lewis adding the goal to make it 18-apiece.

Then Raiders took the lead for the second time, a series of forward drives ending with Denham Samuels crossing fro a try.

Bulldogs responded in spectacular fashion: Bancroft, close to the right touchline, put up a towering cross field kick which winger Dan Retter caught and then dived over for a try to level matters once more at 22-each.

Raiders, though, still had gas in the tank, and in a ten or so minutes’ burst of scoring, posted two tries for James Denton, the first converted by Lewis, to open up a 10-point gap.

With time running out, Birmingham did all they could to redress the balance, and cut the gap to four when Chris Fensome’s try was quickly goaled by Bancroft. But time was up.

The result was a bit tough on Brum, who had looked as good a side as their opponents for most of the match.

Now they must turn their attention to this Saturday’s home fixture with North East Worcestershire Ravens (Kick Off 2:30 pm).

Bancroft was Brum’s man-of-the-match, with Stephenson and Snowden in contention.

Summary: Birmingham Bulldogs 28 Telford Raiders 32

Birmingham:
Tries: L.Snowden, N.Stephenson 2, D.Bancroft, D.Retter, C.Fensome
Goals. D.Bancroft 2

Telford:
Tries: P.Szehofner, L.Roberts 2, N.Davies, D.Samuels, J.Denton 2
Goals: B.Lewis 2