The Lions Survive to Stay in Midlands One

Despite the 40-18 scoreline, it was only in the last 20 minutes that Dudley Kingswinford pulled away from a tiring home defence. It was a game of much promise for Stour, showing how much they have progressed since the season started way back in September.

The Lions scored first after 5 minutes, a cheeky show and go from Rhys Williams leaving him under the posts and with a conversion to make it 7-0 and silence opposition fans. DK piled on the pressure but it took another 15 minutes for them to achieve parity. Back came the Lions with a Rhys Williams penalty goal. However, before half-time the pressure and the power of the DK pack, prompted by Brookes at 9 told and another try was converted to leave DK 14-10 ahead.

The second half proved too much for the Lions to maintain the pressure but they conducted themselves manfully in preventing the sort of scoreline that left them embarrassed at home to leaders Burton.

Shortly after kick-off DK scored from a roll into and across the try line for a converted try. Back came the Lions with a try of their own 5 minutes later; a series of attacks leaving Scotty Langdon to power over. There were a number of attacks out wide where the away side looked more vulnerable and a few chances missed but generally DK dominated the last quarter, with 3 more tries before the close. The Lions did manage on penalty to give the scoreline some justice. The away side knew they had a tougher game than they had anticipated.

So the season has ended, one which gave cause for concern at the start but has ended with much credit to players and coaches alike. There have been a few failures where they have lost by a few points but a good number of hard-fought wins against top-half clubs. Roll on next season!!

Match Report by JON DEWS, pics by SIAN DAVIES