Dudley-Kingswinford RFC continued their unbeaten start to life in Midlands Division Two West with an “ugly” win away at Cheltenham North.

The Heathbrook outfit came away from Gloucestershire with the all-important two points courtesy of a tight 14-13 victory.

Despite the triumph, head coaches Neil Shillingford and Mark Lockley have pin-pointed a long list of areas they will need to work on if they hope to keep their great start going.

Shillingford said: “If somebody would have offered me a one point win at Cheltenham North this time last week we would have taken it so in that respect we are happy although it could probably be best described as an ugly win.

“We had a frustrating afternoon against a Cheltenham side who were superb in defence.

“In recent weeks we have said how the young lads have come in and performed well but this was a game where they were given a rough time against a rugged defence.

“We have certainly come away from this game having learnt a lot about ourselves and where improvements will need to be made.

“There were some positives to come out of the performance, especially the way we closed the game down in the last 20 minutes.

“We were able to camp ourselves in their 22 for the final quarter and this is something we certainly struggled to do at any point last season.”

DK will again be on their travels this Saturday when they visit Camp Hill.

Injury worries for the clash are youngsters Gareth Bown and Stefan Shillingford, who both picked up knocks in the robust clash at Cheltenham North.

One player who will be hoping for a starting berth is New Zealander Rob Harlow, who impressed on his debut after coming off the bench last Saturday.