Bury St Edmunds aiming for fourth National League 2 South win in a row

Bury St Edmunds head coach Jacob Ford is looking to continue his side’s winning momentum when Old Albanian visit tomorrow (3pm) – but he is keen for his players to show they can deliver in style.

The Wolfpack made it three straight wins in National League 2 South for the first time this term by grinding out a 17-0 victory on a difficult pitch in Devon against lowly Barnstaple.

They managed to not give away a single penalty in a scoreless first half and with the wind behind them thereafter, seized their moment with a converted Chris Bolton try.

A Charlie Reed penalty kick increased their lead before Matt Bursey’s converted try put them out of sight, with the clean sheet pleasing Ford.

“The pitch was pretty poor and it quickly turned into one of those Worthing games that we played at home at the beginning of the year,” he said of a game which saw debuts handed to his former Loughborough players Will Attfield and Austin Wallis.

“They never looked like scoring, we were pretty comfortable throughout the game and I was pretty impressed with our defensive performance and we came away with a 17-0 win, so I was pretty happy.”

The four points moved them up two places in the table to eighth ahead of back-to-back home games, with 10th-placed OA’s rearranged visit from the pre-Christmas Covid postponement followed by sixth-placed Leicester Lions.

And Ford thinks the philosophy of their next opponents, who claimed two bonus points in their run of three defeats, can give his players a chance to show what they can really do.

“It is nice to have a little run going and we’ve got to keep the momentum going this weekend,” he said.

“Obviously we have back-to-back home games now and we want to show what type of rugby we can play at home by getting back to our best this weekend.

“I’ve watched back their last couple of games and they’re a tough team to beat.

“They always stick in it and they have a certain style of playing the game which will be interesting coming up against us. They like to throw the ball around and you will see by the scores that they score some points as well.

“We will have to be at our best defensively to have a chance of winning.”

Ampthill loan hooker Austin Wallis is not available this weekend but the player he replaced in the first half at Barnstaple, Camilo Parilli-Ocampo, has recovered from his knock.

Player-coach Ben Cooper, who was unavailable for last weekend, is also set to boost the second row options while centre Samir Kharbouch is in line for a return having recovered from Covid-19.