DUDLEY Kingswinford suffered a devastating defeat after a fourth quarter capitulation at Stratford.

The visitors were cruising at 24-8 up but fly half Gareth Bown’s sin-binning for petulance saw them concede four tries in the closing 18 minutes.

DK were without two of last week’s back row heroes Ian Langford and Tui Asi Pito, with Jamie Ramsey came in at No 8 with Andy McEwen at blindside.

The forwards were evenly matched throughout, though DK generally looked a little sharper in the loose, scrum half Jordan Brookes was DK’s Man of the Match.

The visitors made the perfect start, opening the scoring after just 40 seconds as Jordan Brookes found Tom Weaver to send in Jak Davis in the left hand corner.

Stratford hit back and levelled after four minutes, when a clever back flip pass caught the DK cover napping and a quick ball out to James Kennedy saw the full back in at the corner.

DK began to dominate possession in the loose and regained the lead on 25 minutes when a neat pick up from Ramsey, followed by a burst from Jordan Brookes split the Stratford cover for Stefan Shillingford to power home.

Now well on top, DK blew their chance to forge further ahead when a lack of concentration resulted in shoddy handling and a couple of clear try scoring opportunities were squandered. Stratford clawed three points back with a penalty from fly half Simon Brain after 34 minutes as Dudley lead 10-8 at the break.

A superb individual try Brookes and conversion from Simon Fletcher saw DK’s lead increase to 8-17 two minutes into the second period.

The pacy scrum half spotting a gap at a ruck 20m out jinked and sidestepped through defenders to touch down at the posts.

DK were looking ominously strong and was no surprise at all when they scored a fourth try after 53 minutes, Shillingford going in after another superb flowing move. Fletcher added the conversion to make it 24-8.

The yellow card incident that changed the course of the game came on the hour. Down to 14 men DK conceded two quick tries from poorly defended catch and drives after 62 and 66 minutes.

First flanker Dave Pritchard was driven over for an unconverted try then fly half Brain touched down and converted the second to make it 20-24.

Now back to 15 players DK couldn’t raise their game against the home side who, from being down and out for an hour glimpsed the possibility of a famous victory.

They took the lead for the first time after 73 minutes when Brain was embarrassingly allowed to run 50 metres through several flapped tackles to the line.

He converted the try for 27-24.

DK’s final ignominy came in stoppage time when, as they desperately attempted to salvage the game, the ball was intercepted by Will Franklin who gleefully dotted it down in the corner.