Phil Chesters was left to look back on a bitter-sweet match against Bedford Blues on Saturday as despite scoring his ninth and 10th tries of the Greene King IPA Championship season, they weren’t enough to help Ealing Trailfinders to a vital home victory against Bedford Blues.
The brace takes the flying wing up to 10 league tries for the season, but the result, coupled with Jersey’s win away to Plymouth Albion left Ealing with a 12-point gap to their rivals from the Channel Islands at the bottom of the Championship with five matches till the end of the season.
Jersey are Ealing’s next opponents this coming Friday, 21 March.
“It was all about the club, these two weeks,” Chesters said. “Obviously it was nice to get on the score-sheet, but at the end of the day it was all about the four or five points and unfortunately we didn’t quite get there.
“The guys are very disappointed. It was a massive two weeks for the club and this was the first game in those two weeks. We were in it for the first 60-70 minutes, but unfortunately didn’t come away with a result.”
After Bedford grabbed two early tries Mike Cudmore’s side hit back with three of their own with Chesters’ efforts sandwiching one from TJ Anderson.
However, after their captain had put Bedford back in front with two penalties, the visitors used the elements to keep Ealing pinned back in their own half for most of the half, though it wasn’t until after the hour-mark that they finally gained the upper hand on the scoresheet.
“When you were out there on the field there was quite a strong wind, which was difficult to play into,” Chesters said. “We were trying to run a lot and play and force the penalties, but we weren’t quite dynamic enough in our play and we were getting hit back a bit.
“To be fair to Bedford they had a strong defence around the midfield, so they put pressure on us and forced errors.”
