For a time, it looked as if Bedford were going to pull off one of the comebacks of the season against Bristol but the promotion-chasers found an extra gear to come away with the result.
After half an hour, with the Blues 15-0 behind, a man down and having already conceded three tries, memories of last week’s 50-6 drubbing at Leeds last Sunday were only too clear.
But the hosts rallied superbly either side of half-time to turn the game on its head with teenage winger Aaron Morris grabbing the first two tries of his senior career.
In the end, they just ran out of legs against their illustrious opponents but after last week’s no-show, this was a gutsy showing that restored plenty of pride.
The Blues rang in the changes following the shocker at Headingley while Bristol included in their ranks former Bedford scrum-half Luke Baldwin.
The visitors scored the game’s first try after nine minutes when Ben Glynn burst through the middle and passed to Nick Koster, who sent George Watkins sprinting clear down the right.
Nicky Robinson couldn’t make the tough conversion but Bristol were soon over the whitewash again with Bath loanee Koster again providing the final pass as he put Luke Eves in the clear.
Robinson’s conversion this time struck the left-hand post but Bedford inside 13 minutes already had a hill to climb with their opponents 10-0 ahead and playing at a pace that was extremely difficult to cope with.
As if the Blues’ task wasn’t tough enough, they were then reduced to 14 men when Brendan Burke was sent to the sin bin.
The hosts were just about able to withstand a heavy barrage from a dominant Bristol scrum but eventually their defence was breached for the third time.
Koster had been absolutely everywhere to this point and fully deserved his score as he touched down in the left-hand corner with Robinson again unable to add the extras.
Bedford then showed good character to pull a converted try back while still a man light as Eoin Sheriff did well to stretch for the line for his first for the club.
They then forced themselves right back into the contest right on half-time as Robinson’s loose pass aimed for Adam D’Arcy was knocked on with Morris seizing the opportunity by kicking ahead before touching down.
Jake Sharp’s conversion made the score 15-14 to Bristol at the break with the Goldington Road crowd now brought back to life.
Sharp then had the chance to put the Blues ahead five minutes into the second half but was unable to direct his long-range penalty through the posts.
However, it wasn’t long until they did hit the front for the first time as some slick hands by Don Barrell and Burke on the left wing allowed Morris to squeeze in for his second.
Sharp missed his conversion from out wide but having looked on their way to another heavy defeat after half an hour, Bedford now found themselves 19-15 ahead after 47 minutes.
That lead lasted eight minutes as Bristol’s forwards reasserted themselves to great effect when a driving maul following a line-out powered over the line with Kyle Traynor touching down.
Replacement kicker Adrian Jarvis missed the conversion and Bris then had Andy Short yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle on Patrick Tapley just before the hour mark.
Tapley was then almost on the end a clever cross-field kick by Sharp only for the ball to cruelly bounce over his head when he was in space on the right wing.
This was as close as the Blues came to turning things around again as Bristol finally put the result to bed late on as a neat pass by Jarvis found Watkins who managed to shrug off Tapley to score his second try.
It had been a big effort from Bedford and the scoreline was given a harsh look in stoppage time as Ben Mosses barged his way over after Marco Mama had played him in.
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