Shipston-on-Stour 0 Droitwich Spa 5

DROITWICH took their first tentative step towards fending off relegation with a hard fought win on Saturday.

Gareth Knight lifted his side out of the doldrums by bagging the all important try to end Droitwich's losing run on Saturday.

In a tight relegation battle it was Knight who proved to be the difference between the sides with his second half touch down.

Victory means the bottom side close to within two points of Shipston-on-Stour.

Director of coaching Julian Bailey was full of a praise for the try scoring centre.

He said: "Gareth was terrific for us, he works very hard and really drove us forward.

"We knew we were playing better than results suggested and now we have to keep these sort of performances up."

Spa were at a disadvantage in the first half when they found themselves playing up the slope, but stout defending ensured the home side could not find a way through.

Droitwich took full advantage of playing down the slope in the second half as they took the fight to Shipston.

Captain Nick Godfrey, who stepped in for the injured Matt Blackmore after he broke his hand, was unlucky when he had a try disallowed.

Droitwich must have thought it was not their day after the official ruled out the touch down because he couldn't seen the ball being grounded.

Spa's advantage was taken away after they were forced to move to another pitch, after a Shipston player suffered a serious injury.

Despite the set back Droitwich set about breaking the deadlock.

Andy Gallagher's looping pass found Knight, who sliced through Shipston's defence to touch down.

Sascha Hobbs missed the conversion, but despite a Shipston backlash in the final ten minutes Spa held on for a crucial maximum points haul.

Bailey said: "I thought it wasn't going to be our day when we had that try disallowed, but things went our way.

"We then lost the advantage of playing down the slope, but full credit to the players, they were all excellent," he added.