DUDLEY Kingswinford RFC joint head coach Neil Shillingford hailed his side’s “workmanlike” performance after they broke their away drought at Cheltenham North.

The Heathbrook outfit had been winless on their travels so far this season but battled through tough conditions to record a 44-14 win over their lowly opponents.

Shllingford said he and fellow head coach Mark Lockley were pleased with the way their side coped with strong winds to run in four tries during the first half.

He said: “I was very pleased with the performance.

“It was very, very good considering the conditions we had to play in first half, we coped really, really well.

“In the second half I felt we closed the game down, we gave the performance the conditions allowed.

“It was a workmanlike display.

“It wasn’t going to be a day for fancy rugby, we made a decision to keep it tight and close the game out.”

For the second week running man-of-the-match plaudits went to tight head prop Stefan Thorp whose power and bulk helped keep his side on the front foot.

Shillingford was also pleased to welcome back lock Shaun Griffiths, who made his first senior start in over a year, while Gareth Davies also impressed on his return to scrum half.

After trailing to an early Cheltenham penalty, Davies fed Bown to open DK’s account on nine minutes, before going over himself to increase the lead four minutes later.

A penalty try and a Matt Taylor score made it 24-9 at the half and James Jefferson increased the lead with the try of the game in the first minute of the second period.

DK had plenty of chances to scored more but had just Andy McEwen’s try to celebrate after that.

The only sour note for DK concerned centre Stefan Shillingford, who is set to miss around four weeks with a broken hand.

The coach said: “Stefan will be a big loss but thankfully it is not too bad a break.

“We have players who can come in and cover positions.

“I thought Shaun Griffiths did very well considering it was his first game in over a year.

“Gareth Davies gives us that extra bit of experience and I think he takes the pressure off Gareth Bown in the back row.”

DK’s first back-to back wins of the season moved them up to fifth in Midlands One West and they will look to make it three on the bounce when they host Whitchurch on Saturday (2.15pm).

Shillingford insists he is not paying too much attention to the tables at this stage of the campaign but believes there are a number of teams who can challenge for the title.

He said: “I think there are several teams without a lot to choose between them.

“There have already been a few surprise results and we have made an indifferent start ourselves, it really is a case where anybody can beat anybody on any given Saturday.

“Not many teams run strong squads and three injuries can have a massive impact.

“We just need to concentrate on picking wins and moving up the table.”