Bees suffer late sting in the tail

5:43pm Sunday 30th November 2008

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Bradford & Bingley 16, Nuneaton 19

With a freezing fog swirling around Wagon Lane, it was unlikely that an open, running game between third from top and third bottom would result.

However this was an often entertaining tussle with little to chose between the sides.

Ultimately the spoils were claimed by the visitors following a 77th-minute score from Nuneaton full back Woods. He injected some pace into a move up the righthand touchline to accelerate away from the final Bees defender to claim a well-worked score.

Statistics would surely confirm that this score was very much against the run of possession and territory.

But in truth, the Bees were their own worst enemies in not turning hard-fought field position into points.

The Bees successfully arm-wrestled their way deep into Nuneaton territory on several occasions only to see the ball knocked on, dropped or simply turned over by a well-marshalled rearguard.

In contrast, the visitors were able to keep the scoreboard ticking over via the boot of stand-off Rickie Aley, who slotted three dropped goals on 14, 40 and 46 minutes after his 13th-minute penalty had levelled Stuart Dixon’s opening score for the Bees.

Aley’s timely interventions with the boot meant his side were leading 12-6 with 20 minutes to play when the Bees introduced Liam Frost from the bench to liven up a fairly pedestrian display from the home threequarters.

Frost had an almost immediate impact, getting on the end of a move to the right of the posts and haring clear of the final defenders to bring his side to within a point.

Dixon’s conversion gave the Bees the advantage and it was all set for a nail-biting final 15 minutes.

Knowing that Aley was likely to drop another goal from anywhere in the Bees half, it was vital the hosts posted another score.

Dixon increased the Bees lead with a nicely-taken penalty and the Wagon Lane faithful hoped their side could hang on to the ball long enough to run down the clock.

But with three minutes to go, Nuneaton regained possession and probed to the left of the Bees defence.

The move looked to have petered out on the Bees 22 but the Nuneaton backline snapped into life and put Woods in for the winning score.