Neil Shillingford happy as his DK battlers get the job done
Director of rugby Neil Shillingford has praised his Dudley Kingswinford side after their 28-7 victory at Sutton Coldfield despite the fact it was ‘not the most polished performance’.
DK came away from Walmley Road with five points, putting them on 10 in total in Midlands One West after an opening-day 45-12 success against Stourbridge Lions.
“It wasn’t the most polished performance from us, but we did the job and got the win,” said Shillingford.
“We had a few players missing for the game, but we managed it so I am happy.
“We set our stall out and got the result that we wanted.
“I think that we are now showing a bit more strength in depth than we have done in previous seasons, and we are confident we can put players out there to get the result we want.”
DK turned an opening period of good play into points as Pete Griffiths burst through under the posts for the first try, with Duncan Tompkins adding the extras. They had the lead at the break and immediately started to impose themselves at the start of the second half.
They were soon awarded a penalty try, which Tompkins converted, to make it 14-0.
And then Nic Adams was left with a relatively simple run in to make it 19-0 with the extras from Tompkins.
Sutton were not done though and pulled it back to 21-7, but Mitch Grealey put the win in no doubt late on and sealed the bonus point, with another conversion from Tompkins.
Next up for DK is a home clash against Wolverhampton, who lost 38-12 at Camp Hill and are bottom of the table at this early stage of the campaign with no points to their name.
And ahead of that game, Shillingford added: “It is another local derby for us to prepare for and there will probably be a decent crowd for it.
“It should be a good game but, again, it is just about getting the job done.
“It is about breaking the game down into parts, making sure that we do the basics right, and we are looking forward to getting going again.”
Stourbridge Lions harshly fell to a second straight loss as they were on the wrong end of a 26-25 thriller against Hereford.
They at least picked up a point, though, and head to Lutterworth this weekend looking to taste victory for the first time this term.
