CONFIDENT Stourport survived a late missed penalty to win 22-20 at Birmingham Barbarians in North Midlands Two.
They dominated the line-outs and scrums but the Barbarian forwards made up for their lack of weight with impressive mobility.
The home side were 10-0 ahead at the interval via a penalty and converted try after breaking through Stourport's centres.
But the second half saw a massive step-up in attitude and performance for the visitors who scored within the first five minutes, thanks to fly-half David Morris' drop goal.
Full-back Malcolm Bourne then moved past the defence to touch down an unconverted try.
Stourport were two points behind but Barbarians replied with a converted try against the run of play.
Not to be defeated, a superb line-out move was finished off by prop Melvin Bourne who drove the opposition back to score under the posts.
Centre Lee Philps kicked the extra points and despite a Birmingham penalty, Stourport drove forward to take a narrow lead with two minutes left.
Victor Little scored from a five-metre scrum with Philps adding the extra points.
With the last kick, Barbarians missed a penalty given for offside to end a nail-biting contest.
Stourport 2nds 5 Redditch 36
The seconds faced Redditch first teamers but defended well to keep the half-time score to 10-0.
Stourport's forwards were improved in the second period, only to concede another seven points.
The home side had a try disallowed before Redditch added three more efforts with two converted.
Ed Osborn seized a deserved last-minute try to reward a promising display with plenty of effort.
Redditch 24 Stourport 3rds 20
New scrum-half Dave Abbiss played a crucial role and scored in a thrilling end-to-end encounter.
Adam Wyton and Doc Foster also scored tries, while Steve Mills was man-of-the-match for Stourport who fielded three pairs of fathers and sons along with two Redditch loan players.
Fixtures, Saturday: Stourport 2nds v Ledbury, 3rds v Ledbury.
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