Southern Counties North

Stow 10

Bletchley 7

STOW were frustrated and disappointed with the level of their performance but managed to gain a vital win against Southern Counties North basement club Bletchley.

Stow enjoyed all the pressure and possession for virtually the entire first half but far too many mistakes led to series of missed opportunities.

To be fair to Bletchley defended well but Stow could and should have been out of sight within the first 20 minutes.

Eventually, from a five-metre scrum, number eight Dan Salvage picked up and drove over for the opening score.

Chances continued to go astray before a mistake in defence was pounced upon by Ted Holmes who evaded a number of tackles to double Stow’s lead, although the conversion from Joe Nott was missed.

The remainder of the half saw Stow continue to attack but fail to score.

After the break Bletchley realised they were very much still in the game at just 10-0 down and started to put the home side under pressure.

A yellow card to Stow also gave the visitors a positive boost and they took their opportunity to score a converted try, which was mainly the result of some very poor tackling.

Stow at last woke up to the danger and suddenly knew they were in a close game.

But they managed to see it out despite a number of further worrying moments.

The win was important but Stow know they will have to up their game considerably this weekend when they visit Buckingham who sit five places and 18 points above them in the Southern Counties North table.