Goldington Road finally welcomed the Blues back to competitive rugby on Saturday afternoon as they fought back to defeat Caldy in the third round of fixtures in the Premiership Cup.
Mike Rayer rang the changes once again following two defeats against top tier opposition in the opening rounds but the visitors were looking to build on a superb opening day victory at Ampthill and have proved to be dangerous competitors.
Read: Blues look to get on the board with Goldington Road opener
The opening moments were dominated by the Merseysiders and their tenacity was rewarded after just three minutes as they collected an early lineout in dangerous territory, with Adam Aigbokhae touching down to give the visitors an early 5-0 lead.
Five minutes later, that lead had doubled as Caldy remained patient in working the ball out wide and as Callum Atkinson crashed through a tackle, he found himself on the try line to dive over.
The Blues had barely touched the ball in the opening ten minutes in an uncharacteristically flat start but credit had to be given to last season’s Championship new boys who had turned up for a fight.
The second score seemed to wake up Rayer’s charges, but any chance of an immediate response – first from a Jordan Onojaife break and then Will Maisey – were both snuffed out by the travelling side.
That burst of opportunities seemed to calm the team down and the Blues enjoyed consistently good territory for the next ten minutes but they were still unable to get on the scoreboard, despite Atkinson getting sin-binned for the visitors.
Pressure finally told on 28 minutes; the ball worked out to the left wing and thanks to some tidy hands from Matt Worley, the ball found its way out to Dean Adamson who squirmed through a couple of tackles to dive in under the posts.
Five minutes later, the scores were level as a similar move out left was completed by new signing, Cameron King after another fine burst from Jordan Onojaife set the Blues free.
And it was Bedford who would go into the sheds with the lead as a Maisey penalty from the centre of the field was the last action of an eventful first half with the Blues 15-12 in front.
Blues press home advantage
The second half began as the first had ended; an awful spill from Caldy’s Sam Dickinson gifting Blues possession from the kick off, and moments later Joey Conway bundled over the try line having just come off the substitute’s bench.
Caldy’s penalty count was also rising sharply; the visitors getting pinged on regular intervals and referee, Mike Howard was getting impatient as he showed a second yellow card of the game, this time to Lewis Barker.
Moments later, the bonus point was secured thanks to a fine offload from Conway that found Jordan Venter to touch down on the right wing.
A 17-point deficit felt like a long way back for the Merseysiders but their first foray into Bedford territory in the second period was greeted with a converted try from Matt Gallagher to reduce the deficit to ten.
Both sides were becoming guilty of increasingly sloppy play in the closing moments, but Maisey calmed blue hearts with five minutes remaining, slotting home another solid penalty to increase the lead to 32-19.
Caldy were not going down without a battle however; a late surge on the try line resulting in another try for Gallagher, and a late sin bin for his opposite number, Jacob Fields but it was too little too late.
Mike Rayer’s side would have taken a 32-24 win after the first quarter of an hour, but as soon as Bedford woke up from their slumber, they were always favourites for victory.
A lot will have to happen in Pool B if it is to open up for Bedford Blues, but a first victory of the season will calm nerves before the Battle of Bedfordshire resumes next weekend at Ampthill.
Elsewhere, there were no real shocks on a bumper Saturday of Premiership Cup rugby, with Newcastle Falcons beating Sale 23-10 on Friday night in Bedford’s pool while Ampthill face a bumper fixture on Sunday against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road.
