Preston opened the scoring, a maul side entry offence in Stour’s 22 allowing Taylor to calibrate his kicking radar. A similar offence at the other end produced a more difficult opportunity but Stour outside-half Rod Petty slotted it.

From the restart Stour worked the phases with ball in hand, centre James Otutaha breaking through the defensive line and racing 50m before he was hauled down. Stour pressed the attack, moving the ball around before Petty’s cut-out pass found prop Stef Thorp whose offload enabled winger Nathan Bressington to produce some neat footwork, evade an attempted tackle and score in the corner. 9min 3-8.

Stour continued to attempt to move the ball, but found themselves contained by the Preston defence. Handling errors and a misfiring lineout coughed up possession far too frequently, consequently the visitors found themselves defending for extended periods. Preston kicked a penalty award to the corner and ground a maul over the line, no.8 Alastair Murray scoring the try which Taylor converted. 25min 10-8.

With the hosts preferring the aerial route Stour conceded another penalty and were fortunate when Taylor’s kick drifted wide. But a knock on gifted the hosts another bite at the cherry, they pressed the attack and a further penalty award was kicked by Taylor. 37min 13-8. With halftime imminent Stour opted to kick a penalty award to the corner but were unable to drive the maul forward and the opportunity passed.

Stour pressed from the restart and were awarded a penalty on Preston’s 22 smack in front of the posts, but Petty’s kick drifted wide. The hosts got a nudge on at a scrum and kicked a penalty award to Stour’s 22 where a further penalty award was landed by Taylor. 48min 16-8. Further indiscipline continued to cost Stour possession and territory, referee Callum Sharpe finally losing patience and yellow carding 2nd row Robbie Hurrell. Taylor added a further penalty as the depleted Stour defences failed to heed the lesson, centre Joe Heatley joining Hurrell in the sinbin for a red zone infringement. 60min 22-8.

Into the final quarter and Stour finally managed to hang on to some possession and put Preston under pressure, the penalty flow reversed and a short-range catch & drive produced a try when scrum half Toby Handley spotted a gap in the fringe defences. 66min 22-13. Sensing their opponents starting to tire and boosted by the fresh legs of their bench subs Stour upped the tempo, but disaster struck when a high-looking hit on replacement hooker Billy Harding went unpenalised and resulted in the ball going loose near Stour’s 22. It was hacked through and - with the cover wrong-footed - Murray pounced to score his 2nd try. 71min 29-13.

Back came Stour, continuing to run from deep and this time rewarded when carries by Heatley, Harding and Connor Nicholls reached the Preston 22, the attack killed by a cynical offence that saw Taylor yellow carded. Stour’s kick to the corner failed to produce but Preston couldn’t clear their lines and with the final whistle imminent Nicholls drove over from short range for the visitors’ 3rd try. Full time 29-18.

Next week Jan 30th Stour host Leicester Lions at Stourton Park, 3pm ko.