By Brian Dick - Birmingham Post
September 7 2006

Despite the fact that his side have already caused a major upset by starting their season with a draw at Bedford, Pertemps Bees' head coach Steve Williams believes there is even better to come from his side, writes Brian Dick. Despite the fact that his side have already caused a major upset by starting their season with a draw at Bedford, Pertemps Bees' head coach Steve Williams believes there is even better to come from his side, writes Brian Dick.

In his first game in charge of the Solihull outfit, Williams engineered a startling 29-29 result at Goldington Road as his team produced a courageous display to claim a share of the spoils and a try-bonus at one of National One's most hostile outposts.

But it could have been even better.

With a seven-point lead and the game in injury time Bees looked as though they had done enough to claim the win only for the hosts to haul themselves level.

But as disappointed as he was with the fact they hadn't held on, Williams was quick to recognise the latent potential in a line-up that included 12 new faces.

"We are only going to get better," the Welshman said. "We created a lot of chances but did not take them and a lot of that was down to the fact that we have not played together much.

"We over-ran each other a couple of times and sometimes our passing was not good enough but that's maybe because people were too keen.

"Defensively we missed too many tackles as well but that will come as we get used to being together.

"There was a lot of endeavour out there but at times we looked like a side that has not played together very much. There's no use beating around the bush, that's what we are."

But for all that lack of complete cohesion Williams saw enough to know this squad should be made of sterner stuff than last year's version.

"We showed massive amounts of character. That was perhaps the most gratifying thing," he said in reference to the fact that at one point in the second period Bees trailed 19-8.

"When people thought we were dead and buried it would have been easy to buckle but we dug in and came back and should have held on for the win."

Meanwhile, Bees' flanker Will Matthews is in a 33-man England Sevens squad for the 2006-07 season. The back row, who has joined on loan from Gloucester, is eligible to play in four of the eight IRB Sevens tournaments with Mike Friday's team.


Brian Dick - Birmingham Post

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