BATTLING Bromsgrove Rugby Club clinched promotion to Midlands One with a last-gasp try in a nerve-shredding finale at Derby on Saturday.

Coach Dean Ball's Finstall Park side were 9-3 down with just a minute left on the clock when Matt Birch flicked a ball out to centre Danny Malin who touched down.

Birch, who also scored a penalty just after the break, converted to hand Bromsgove a 10-9 victory and the Powergen Midlands Two (West) title.

It's the second time in three seasons, Bromsgrove have won promotion to Midlands One on the last day of the season, having beaten Old Laurentians in a similar scenario three years ago.

Bromsgrove were under the cosh throughout the second half and at one stage were down to 13 men for nine minutes with scrum half Nick Copson and second row John Taylor, sin-binned within sixty seconds of each other.

However they defended stoutly to seal a memorable victory and earn praise from Ball who admitted he feared they would have to go into a play-off next weekend.

"As a game it didn't happen but the referee didn't help and made it more and more tense," said Ball.

"I was resigned to us playing in the play-off next week. We spent most of the second period in our half on the back-foot.

"It was very tense especially when we were down to 13 men having had two players sin-binned for 10 minutes.

"They had the opportunity to close the game out with a penalty but opted to kick for touch and attempted a drive over. Derby will rue the chances they've missed."

"We were relegated after finishing seventh last year in a league of 12 which was a bit harsh and this season we've proved this league is not competitive enough for us," added Ball.

"It's a great achievement to win against a Derby team that are better prepared than us financially.

"To go away on the last game of the season, for the second time in three years, and win is a tremendous achievement.

"We knew we had to get back into Midlands One and it's important that having got back there we do ourselves more justice than we did last year.

"We are quite an old squad with a few 30 somethings who might have to hang up their boots so we will definitely be looking to add to our squad because last year one of the problems was that the squad was not big enough for Midlands One.

"The back up players were not up to the standard required."