A PERFORMANCE full of pride, passion and commitment saw Coventry beat Ampthill 25-19 and extend their unbeaten run in National League One to five matches.
An excellent crowd of 1,435 saw Coventry produce a superb team effort in what was fitting performance to mark the en do Dave Addleton’s career after 26 years service as player/coach and it was an emotional afternoon too for Matt Price who made his 150th appearance.
The boot of Matt Jones saw Coventry take an early advantage and it proved to be a lead they would never lose.
Jones played a big part in setting up the opening try of the match too when his deep keep led to Caolan Ryan crossing out wide and Jones was on-hand to land the conversion for 10-0.
After Coventry were penalised at a ruck, Ampthill applied several minutes of solid pressure which the Blue & Whites absorbed until prop forward Matt Collins crashed over and Elliot Clements-Hill converted the extras for the Bedfordshire side.
But the home side took control of the match after that and scored twice to extend their lead to 20-7 at half-time.
First on 19 minutes, a superb build up saw Dom Lespierre fly over for his ninth try of the season which Jones again converted before adding another three points to his tally before the break.
Both sides enjoyed spells of pressure as the match re-started and on 53 minutes a period of pressure saw the visitors score an unconverted try by flanker Will Evans.
More visiting pressure saw Chad Thorne receive a yellow card but Coventry bravely put up a strong defence before with eight minutes remaining Ryan helped set up try number three.
The full back superbly caught a high kick and chase under pressure and his quick hands set up replacement Dan Rundle who triumphantly crossed for his first try of the season after a long injury absence.
Jones was off target with the conversion but at this point Coventry were 25-12 in front.
The visitors searched for a way back into the match and they were helped when George Oliver was yellow-carded on 80 minutes and Darrell Dyer battled his way over the line, with Clements Hill scoring the conversion, to cut the deficit to six.
A nail biting period followed as Ampthill looked to find a winning score but Jones was able to joyfully kick the ball out of play to the pleasure to the home support.
