JON Higgins says the solution to Dudley Kingswinford’s abysmal away form is all in the mind.

DK took a huge step toward securing their National Two North safety with Saturday’s nail-biting 35-33 win over Westoe.

But the Heathbrook outfit are still yet to taste victory on their travels and Higgins has turned his attentions toward this Saturday’s trip to Sheffield Tigers.

Higgins admits he and fellow head coach Pete Knight have tried numerous methods to solve DK’s away struggles, though as yet to no avail.

He said: “We’ve held meetings with the players but that didn’t work.

“We tried turning up to games later, we tried turning up earlier, none of which did the trick.

“At the end of the day it is down to the individual players and their mindset.

“We have shown we are capable of playing good, competitive rugby at home and we should be able to do the same away.

“Saturday was a big win in terms of staying in the division but I still think we need to win an away game.”

Saturday’s win took DK 21 points clear of the bottom three but the game proved to be a nerve-shredding affair, with Westoe’s Nathan Horsfall missing the chance to snatch a draw for his side when he failed with a conversion attempt deep into stoppage time.

It would have capped a fine comeback from the visitors after they battled back from 32-14 down at one stage, against a DK side who played for almost 60 minutes with just 14 men following Rich Kelley’s sending-off for retaliation.

The loosehead prop is now likely to face a ban of at least two matches.

Higgins said: “I know it’s a classic answer but I genuinely didn’t see the incident.

“I did speak to Rich afterward and he admitted punching the guy, though there had been some serious provocation.

“In any case you shouldn’t retaliate but Rich is a fiery person.”

He added: “At times we played some outstanding rugby which came close to hitting the heights of last season.

“The sending-off eventually took its toll and they came back into it.

“But we deserved to win and had they snatched the draw I think it would have been an injustice.”