ALCESTER RFC captain James Hibbard felt his side were guilty of taking their foot off the gas as they lost 21-20 to visitors Bedworth in Saturday’s Midlands Three West (South) fixture.
Tries from Luke Spencer, Jamie Harland and Neil Goodrich inside half an hour seemed to have put Alcester in control but Bedworth fought back to take the points.
“It was a disappointing outcome following a good start to the game,” said Hibbard.
“The squad were committed, taking the lead but we were guilty of taking their foot off the gas.
“The result hurt us all but we build again in mid-week training and will take it to the Berkswell and Balsall fixture on Saturday.”
Alcester started strongly against Bedworth and were ahead within the opening five minutes of the game after winger Spencer crossed the whitewash.
Harland, a hat-trick hero the weekend before, doubled his side’s lead and Alcester looked as if they would run away with the game when Goodrich scored a third try within half an hour.
However, Bedworth scored just before half-time to get a foothold in the game and cut Alcester’s lead to 15-7 at the break.
The opposition came out fighting in the second half and scored quickly. Another successful conversion took them within a point of Alcester.
In the 65th minute Bedworth took the lead for the first time in the game with their third try and added the extra two points.
Five minutes from the end, Louis Smith thought he had won it for Alcester when he found himself over the line but the hosts could not secure a single conversion in the afternoon which ended up being the difference between winning and losing the game.
Alcester 2nd XV also suffered defeat, coming out second best in a physical and tough battle against Evesham 3rds to lose 29-17.
Hosts Evesham took an early lead scoring two tries before Alcester went down to 14 men due to a yellow card.
Alcester were able to claw back and level the scores through tries from vice-captain Glyn Smith and Alec Aucott.
Evesham regained the lead in the second half before Alcester levelled again courtesy of Will Bate and an impressive touchline conversion from Chris Howell.
However, Evesham went into the last 20 minutes able to field substitutes which gave them fresh legs and Alcester suffered the loss of Smith due to a head injury.
