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Bright spot: DK debutant Chris Bartley touching down for a try against Newport on Saturday.

DUDLEY Kingswinford's catastrophic season finally came to an embarrassingly one-sided conclusion with yet another thrashing, this time away to Newport.

Midland Division One's bottom side went down 53-12 against a Newport side, who have themselves only just avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth, after a late burst of five wins from their last seven games. The home side simply had to win this one to survive and how it showed. DK, by contrast had nothing but pride to play for, but a disastrous opening 20 minutes saw them ship five tries.

The club's demise this season is little short of remarkable, when remembering they were runners-up last season and unlucky to lose the play-off game away at Beverley.

An unprecedented number of injuries throughout the campaign certainly haven't helped with DK rarely been able to field a settled side.

There were seven changes to the side that lost to Scunthorpe last week. Coaches Neil Shillingford and Mark Lockley brought in six of the Colts side.

Jordan Brookes, Gareth Bown and Stefan Shillingford were named in the backs and Chris Bartley, Joe Francis and Stefan Thorpe on the bench. Ryan Wickets was on the right wing. While there was almost nothing to enthuse about in DK's performance, the youngsters in general did well and their great season for the Colts has been the one positive to come out of Heathbrook this year.

DK are still in the hunt for silverware as they travel to Hereford this Saturday for their North Midlands Cup semi-final.

9:28am Thursday 24th April 2008

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