Dudley savour success at the tenth time of asking

10:33am Thursday 29th November 2007

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DK 12, NEWPORT 3.

THE thunder clouds which have been lingering over Heathbrook since September were finally broken by a glimmer of sunshine as Dudley Kingswinford won their first game of the season at the 13th time of asking.

The 12-3 triumph over Newport was a welcome relief to what has so far been a very poor season.

For the game Allan Mitchell was back at scrum-half for DK as was Tom McIntosh after injury and Ollie Shakespeare came into the second row in place of Sam Herrington.

It was apparent from the opening whistle that the hosts were very much up for the match, immediately taking the game to Newport whose forwards seemed a little unsettled by the pace of the action and soon began to infringe. A good break by John Fallon from a maul on 14 minutes saw Newport penalised but Bissell's kick drifted just wide. DK kept up the pressure and when Newport were penalised again on 20 minutes Bissell made no mistake to put DK 3-0 up and kicked another penalty on 28 minutes to give them a 6-0 lead.

The home side's focus and sheer effort kept Newport penned inside their half and very much on the back foot. It was not long before they were awarded another penalty, again dispatched skilfully by Bissell from way out on the 10m line for DK to increase their lead to 9-0 on 36 minutes.

Bissell put DK 12-0 ahead just into stoppage time with another monster penalty from fully 45 metres.

In the second period Newport had a brief flurry and scrum-half Jamie Simpson opened their account with a penalty in front of the posts to make it 12-3, he had missed a more difficult chance a minute or two earlier. This proved to be a mere blip and DK were soon back on the offensive, holding on comfortably for the rest of the game to pick up that elusive first win.

Dudley Kingswinford: Lloyd-Jones, Gowland, Jones, Davies, Reynolds, Bissell, Mitchell, McIntosh, Bullock, Langford, Connett, Shakespeare, Francis, Booth, Fallon. Reps: Millard, McEwen, Hadkiss.