Medway suffered their eighth defeat of the season as visitors Bedford took the Regional 1 South East spoils 20-15 at Priestfields.

Despite failing to score a try, coach Taff Gwilliam was impressed with his side's application and thought they got less than they deserved.

"For most of this match we played very, very well," he said. "Bedford are a good side and only a couple of rash decisions let us down. We were punished for them.

“We showed great character to come back and were unfortunate not to get more at the end.”

The home team opened the scoring after just three minutes when, from a scrum, Bedford were caught offside and Jack Cohen converted the penalty.

Bedford equalised on 22 minutes with Medway not rolling away quickly enough at the breakdown and took the lead five minutes later with Medway penalised for holding on.

It was 6-6 when Bedford were again caught offside and Cohen once more kept his cool. Medway then led after another penalty won when Alfie Orris fed the ball inside to Cohen just short of the line and he was tackled illegally before being replaced by Sean Marriott. The offending Bedford player was yellow-carded.

Bedford missed the first scoring opportunity of the second half when a penalty went wide but Medway increased the gap to six points when the away team were once again caught offside. Good work from Max Easton and Antony Clement, backed up by Henry Kenny and Dan O’Brien, gave Max Bullock the chance at the tee.

Gwilliam's side were in control until Bedford took advantage of an errant kick, their winger scampering over for the try which was converted. Eight minutes later missed tackles saw Bedford score their second converted try under the posts, Medway having given possession away cheaply.

On 65 minutes Bullock kicked another penalty to reduce the arrears and the last 15 minutes saw Medway dominate field position. From a penalty they kicked into the Bedford 22 where the initial drive was stopped before the away side knocked on in the tackle.

From 20 yards Medway drove the Bedford scrum back 15 and they were penalised again. With the last play of the game Medway opted for their scrum, but inexplicably it wheeled immediately and they were penalised for collapsing it, giving Bedford the win.

Medway return to action at Shelford on November 26.