National League One

Blaydon 17

CHRISTMAS came late for Cinderford as they celebrated their second consecutive league victory with the festive party that never was.

Santa hats and horrible jumpers were the post-match attire as Andy Deacon's men hit the town with something to shout about.

Cinderford made the long journey to the north east on Friday evening, not arriving until 12.30am on Saturday.

They were without Adam Nicholls (back injury), so Mark Rimmer came into the second-row with Dave McKee switching to blindside flanker.

Danny Trigg opened the scoring with a penalty, before missing two tough shots at goal.

Blaydon, always a tough nut to crack at home, seized the initiative with a 28th minute try from centre Patrick Dias, converted by Andrew Baggett.

Mark Davies dropped a goal in the 35th minute, but the hosts took a 10-6 lead into the interval when Baggett kicked a penalty.

Cinderford came out strongly in the second-half and winger Nevaro Codlin raced in for his eighth try of the season just five minutes after the restart. Codlin collected an inside pass from Dave Knight before cutting past full-back Rock with ease. Trigg converted from close to the posts.

Back came Blaydon – flanker Rob Bell going over for a try that Baggett converted.

Cinderford thought they had scored the decisive try when Dave Knight ghosted over the line. His team-mates were already celebrating when Blaydon lock Gavin Jones forced the careless Knight to knock-on in the in-goal area.

Knight made amends soon after. He charged down an attempted clearance from Baggett, gathered up the loose ball and made no mistake grounding the ball this time. Trigg converted.

With a quarter-of-an hour to play Blaydon pressed hard for another score, but they were shut out by some determined defending as the Foresters introduced fresh legs in Chris Jones, Sam Wilkes and Steve Price.

Cinderford: Danny Trigg, Nevaro Codlin, Dave Knight, Dewi Scourfield, Paul Boston, Mark Davies, Sam Brown, Paul Price, Chris Hall (capt), Chris Bundy, Mark Rimmer, Ed King, Dave McKee, Luke Allen, George Evans. Reps: Chris Jones for Rimmer 66mins, Sam Wilkes for Chris Hall 66mins, Steve Price for Luke Allen 73mins. Not used: Luke Carter, Matt Betty.