Bromsgrove 17, Syston 3

BROMSGROVE entertained newly-promoted Syston at Finstall Park on a glorious Saturday afternoon and maintained their excellent start in National League Midlands Three.

Both sides were very tentative in their performance and it was only lit up by two excellent tries from the home side at the end of each half.

The first half began with enthusiasm but with a lot of errors on both sides and for the first 30 minutes it was tit for tat with opportunities at either end which were either snuffed out by poor finishing or good defence. Bromsgrove appeared to have the edge up front as they were bigger than the opposition, but having lost two very good ball carriers from last season they are struggling to get the necessary forward momentum to dominate sides.

It was on 35 minutes that the deadlock was broken. A superb counter attack instigated by Dave Lewis led to a score by Liam Marshall under the posts which Jon Critchlow converted and that was to be the only score of the half.

Syston did have opportunities to reduce the arrears, but missed two kickable penalties.

The second half started much as the first with a lot of mistakes, but on 12 minutes the visitors were successful with a penalty from fly half Ben Morgan. This was soon cancelled out by a long-range kick from Critchlow.

The game seemed to lack passion, particularly from the home side but fortunately Syston were not able to take any advantage from this.

The positive for Bromsgrove was that the penalty count was low and there were no yellow cards. It took until the 40th minute of the half for Town to make the game safe when the forwards turned over the opposition ball.

James Upton was able to feed Sam Bastock who ran half the length of the pitch to score a superb try, which was inevitably converted by Critchlow.

Bromsgrove take on fellow undefeated side Hinckley at Finstall Park on Saturday..

While the match did not live up to the conditions and the atmosphere, the Boars racked up their third win of the season