Bury St Edmunds showed reasons to be optimistic during latest away defeat at Leicester Lions

Despite another away-day loss Bury St Edmunds’ Jacob Ford believes the side are on the right track ahead of taking on Barnes at the GK IPA Haberden tomorrow (3pm).

A 49-26 reverse at Leicester Lions on Saturday made it three defeats from three on the road this season to drop the promotion hopefuls from eight down to 10th place in National League 2 South after six matches.

Just like at Worthing last month, it was another slow start which cost them with the Wolfpack heading into half-time trailing 21-0 with the penalty count having quickly punished them.

But the Suffolk side rallied to score four tries, from Samir Kharbouch, Chris Bolton, Ciaran Leeson and Matt Bursey, to secure a losing bonus point in the second half.

And it was the way they finished the game which leads head coach and director of rugby Ford to be confident a winning run across home and away games is just around the corner.

“It does not help when you start the game horribly again,” he said. “But on a positive we are moving in the right direction again, as otherwise we would not have gone on to pick up the bonus point.

“As I’ve previously said, we on a journey and are learning. Hopefully next away game will see us bringing it all together.”

The way they once again invited their hosts to rack up the early points on Saturday was particularly frustrating though, he admitted.

“Most of it was under our control,” he said.

“We gave four penalties away in the first five minutes which leads to pressure, giving the opposition good ball to play with and gain momentum to score tries.

“We have just got to start games with that confidence but it takes time to instil that in a team.

“Hopefully we can kick on this week looking at what we are doing and hopefully get better.”

Barnes are currently one place below Bury in the table in 11th and travel to Suffolk off the back of a 26-19 home defeat to Guernsey.

Ford said: “Barnes are tough opposition and they will definitely be firing a few shots at us.

“They have a strong well-drilled pack and we will have to be prepared for that.

“But we will be just focusing on ourselves and implementing the things we want to bring in, such as that commitment again. I’ve no doubt it will be a close game.”

The Wolfpack came out of the weekend with no fresh injury concerns while former Bedford Blues prop Camilo Parilli-Ocampo is making good progress on his return from a broken arm, Ford was able to confirm.

“He will probably not be available until the next weekend as we do not want to rush him back,” he said.

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