NEIL Shillingford said a shortened pre-season is ‘paying dividends’ after Dudley Kingswinford side remained unbeaten with their second win in the first two matches of the season.

After claiming a 26-22 bonus point victory away at Sutton Coldfield in the first game last weekend, DK put in a “much improved” performance to take down Whitchurch 33-21 at Heathbrook – getting another bonus point.

DK who scored first on 10 minutes, Gareth Bown running in under the posts from the off load after Jordan Brookes was tackled.

The home side extended their lead when the maul drove the ball over the line following a line-out catch from Matt Perks, going in 12-0 at the break.

After going further in front from Nick Adams, Shillingford was disappointed with how his players let Whitchurch back into the game after dominating the match.

But another Adams try – which gave DK the bonus point – together with skipper Stef Shillingford who was put through a gap in the defence for DK’s fifth try, helped their side to the victory.

DK travel to undefeated Bromsgrove for a top of the table clash on Saturday (3pm kick-off), but Shillingford admits his players will need to keep improving if they are to claim another win.

The director of rugby said: “There is still a lot of work to do, because even though we started well we let them back into it in the first 15/20 minutes of the second half.

“We were in complete control of the match but we didn’t do enough to put the game to bed. When we were at 19-0 I wanted us to put them to the sword, but there is probably still a little bit of mental shortness, which we will improve on as the season goes on.

“Despite that, it was a massive improvement on last weekend’s performance, but we know we will need to keep improving especially as we face Bromsgrove next.

“We know how tough it will be from our games over the last two seasons. It will be a massive challenge, but we need to just make a couple of improvements.”