Express & Star

Saxons pick up win on the road

Two second-half tries were enough to see Stourbridge over the line in a scrappy encounter at Otley for their third win in a row in National League One.

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Otley 16 Stourbridge 21

Two second-half tries were enough to see Stourbridge over the line in a scrappy encounter at Otley for their third win in a row in National League One.

In the end scores from Matt Williams and Will Davis were enough to see Stourbridge home, but they were made to work hard until the final whistle by a game Otley outfit.

The home side did not look like as if they had only won twice this season when centre James White took the first phase of the game 50 yards through a huge gap in the Saxons midfield, before offloading to James Twomey who went over unopposed.

Stourbridge have made a habit of such early setbacks of late so their heads do not drop when they suffer them. Instead they battle back, with the back row unit of James Rodley, Rupert Cooper and James Freeman coming to the fore.

Rodley went closest to a first-half try for Stourbridge, knocking on as he stretched for the line, while the Alistair Bressington's runaround seemed to have put Matthew Williams in, but he was denied when the touch judge spotted a forward pass in the move.

In the end the visitors had to settle for three Ali Bressington penalties, which gave them a 9-5 lead at the interval.

Three minutes later and Rodley raced through to pick up the loose ball from a kick ahead got the ball away with a lovely pass over his shoulder for Williams to score.

Stourbridge went further ahead when they were rewarded for turning down a kickable penalty. They won the resulting lineout and drove prop Davis over for a try on the left.

The home side finished the stronger of the two sides and hit back when they too opted for a lineout and drove over their skipper Jamie Sutton for a score.

The pressure on Stourbridge was ramped up a notch and replacement Jordan Page was yellow carded for his team's persistent offending around the breakdown.

But, in the end they had to settle for a late Christian Georgiou penalty and a losing bonus point.

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