Sat 3 Oct 2026, 15:00
Error-ridden Stortford fail to win a game that, for most of the 80 minutes was there for the taking.
Early Bury pressure was withstood well by the visitors and, despite losing Alex Rayment to a yellow card after 5 minutes for a harsh deliberate knock on at very close quarters, went 7 points ahead 2 minutes later. This was achieved in spite of having butchered a 5m lineout from a great Ben Morrow penalty to the corner. The try came almost immediately afterwards, with Austin Pope, crashing through two tackles to touch down and Chris Bolton adding the conversion with 12 minutes gone. The lead lasted only 3 minutes, when the home side ran back an aimless kick after Stortford’s restart reception, which invited the opposition onto them. Some slick handling in Bury’s backs sliced through a disjointed defence and Ben Penfold’s conversion of a try by George Loose levelled the scores. The two sides hammered at each other for the next 10 minutes with defences holding tight. The deadlock was broken when Reggie Hammick ran into space from his own 22 and kicked ahead, with a good chase putting the home side under sudden pressure. After multiple phases of driving play, Bolton was able to force his way over for a try at the fringe of one of a series of try-line rucks and added the extras to restore his side’s 7 point lead. This lasted 5 full minutes, with the home side put onto the attack from a scrum penalty and a resultant lineout 20m out. Once again, Stortford’s defence was cut open relatively easily by a burst of pace from a Bury threequarter, allowing his right wing to run round for a try under the posts, leaving Penfold an easy conversion. Stortford bounced back onto the front foot and some aggressive running forced the home side into some desperate defence, resulting in a second yellow card with 5 minutes of the half left. Despite the two-man advantage, Stortford were unable to capitalise on two 5m lineouts, with Bury turning over both and the sides went into the break with the scores level.
Stortford started the second period strongly and finally made another attacking lineout count, when the pack drove 8 metres to the try line, where a penalty try was awarded for collapsing the maul. Bury were spared the usual further yellow card, because the officials could not identify a single culprit. The visitors remained on the front foot, though and had a number of golden chances to have scored further tries, one of which might have been enough to put away a visibly tiring home side. Lacking composure at crucial moments, however, Stortford were held at bay by some scrambling Bury defence. The home side took full advantage and were rewarded for their adventurous approach, when they ran the ball out of their 22, capitalising fully on a defensive slip out wide to break out down the left and quickly switching the ball down the line set their right winger free to dash over behind the posts from 40 metres out. Penfold added the extras to level the scores with 62 minutes gone. Worse was to come 6 minutes later, when the Bury pack rumbled over the try line after successive penalties had been conceded by Stortford in their own 22, as their game fragmented even further. Penfold again converted and, with his side now pretty much in the driving seat hammered the final nail into the opposition’s coffin with a penalty goal a minute from the end.
