Morrell pleased with performance after Clevedon

Despite losing out Bridgwater and Albion head coach Simon Morrell was pleased with the way that his team performed against Clevedon.

“It’s rather frustrating because I felt that we should have won the game, but given the 18 players we had in the squad and the disruption we had right up to kick off when Taylor Buller pulled out after injury in the warm up we were really competitive.

“Against one of the top two teams we competed in every aspect of the game and were relentless in our commitment. Perhaps the only area where we were second best was in tackle completion, and there was a period in the second half where we missed some soft tackles, which led to their break away try which was the difference between us in the end.

“This game was a great opportunity to see how our extended squad performed against one of the best sides in the league, which was very pleasing and we outscored them three tries to two.

“In fact if you didn’t know from the way we played you wouldn’t be able to tell which tem was chasing the play off place!

The head coach went on:  “If we’d had Micky Norman, Nick Spellissy, Rob Allen, Taylor Buller, Harry Collins and Adrian Tew, who were missing on Saturday in our line up then there is no doubt in my mind that we would have won.

“I was really very pleased with the way that we played, more than after some of the games that we have won this year and given where we were in September to now we are in a very good place to get the season over, rest up and get the squad back together in the summer and have a really good push for promotion next year.

“I thought that Kyran Devitt, who stepped up and started in place of Taylor Buller was exceptional and another great example of hard work in the training sessions paying off was exceptional on Saturday.

“So overall of course I was disappointed to have lost but I was really pleased the way that the boys all played, especially given the players we were missing.

“The agenda for our training sessions this week is clear and there is a lot we can build on and look back at it in a really positive light this week.”

On Saturday the Albion travel to the Forest of Dean to play Drybrook who are in third place in the table, just below Clevedon.

“It will be more of the same so we are all looking forward to the challenge and we are still very keen on leaving our mark on this season so we will be looking for a win at Drybrook so there is still plenty to play for.”

Morrell hopes to have several players who were missing on Saturday available for selection for the game at Drybrook.

Category: 1st XV News, Previews / Reports -XV