Nottingham came off worse in their Championship clash against Bedford Blues, as their visitors took the lead with a Dean Adamson try inside the first minute and never gave it up.
The Green and Whites nearly hit back five minutes later when Jack Stapley broke through, but some great defence from Bedford meant Sam Green couldn’t hold onto the offload and Bedford were able to counter.
Adamson once again used his speed to make plenty of ground and then chipping it over the top for Matthew Worley to chase. Worley only just got there in time to keep the ball from going into touch and after a messy couple of moments with the ball on the ground, Nottingham were able to clear their lines.
After that early scare, Bedford never even looked like surrendering their lead, and Will Maisey added to their score with an easily kicked penalty right in front of the posts on 15 minutes.
Nottingham got a try of their own soon after though, winning a penalty at the halfway line and kicking to the corner put them in prime position to score. A couple of driving mauls later and Archie Van Der Flier was able to get the ball down over the line.
Bedford rallied though, and the hooker James Fish got over the line twice in fairly quick succession, first of all finishing a well worked drive all the way up the field, and then getting the ball down after a well-executed driving maul from a penalty in the corner.
The two teams exchanged tries in the final ten minutes before the half, with Seb Ferreira scoring his first ever try in the green and white jersey by finishing off an attack made by Sam Green and Ryan Olowofela beating a couple of men in the left corner and offloading to put him away, and then Oisin Heffernan burrowing his way over the line.
Nottingham nearly got a try back right before the half, executing a couple of driving mauls from two penalties kicked to the corner, but some excellent try-line defence from Bedford kept them out and retained their 15-point lead heading into the break.
The second half looked like it would be more of the same for Craig Hammond’s men early on, as their first lineout of the half sailed over the pack and landed straight in the hands of Heffernan. However, it wasn’t long after that when Ryan Olowofela intercepted a wayward pass and took it all the way to the try line to shrink the gap to just eight points early in the half.
The next fifteen minutes passed with neither team mounting any serious attack. That was until Bedford worked their way up inside the Nottingham 22 and finished excellently with Robin Williams diving over the line to restore the lead they had at the break and pretty much guaranteeing the victory for the Blues
Despite the loss, Nottingham did find a silver lining in a bonus point try in the final minute, set up by Jordan Olowofela and David Williams linking up well to bring it to within inches of the try line. Bedford thought they had got away with it, holding up Williams over the line a few phases later, but a poor clearing kick by Louis Grimoldby gave Marcus Ramage a clear run to the try line.
Nottingham will hope to get back to winning ways as they are at home again next week, taking on Coventry in a rare Sunday afternoon game at The Bay