CINDERFORD captain Mike Wilcox says his side have a renewed confidence after their first home win of the season this weekend.

The Foresters defeated Hull Ionians 32-19 at Dockham Road on Saturday to end a rotten run of four consecutive losses.

The victory was Cinderford’s second so far this season from nine games but Wilcox believes the win will spur the side on during what he and director of rugby Nic Corrigan called a ‘critical’ time for the club.

“It was good to start this period with a win,” Wilcox said.

“It was a good day for us and the main thing was that we played for 80 minutes.

“It was a rubbish day with the wind and rain, so we knew it wasn’t a day for chucking the ball around.

“We just went back to basics and we executed them well.

“The driving line-out and scrum worked well so we stuck to keeping it simple.

“We used the forwards well and with how the last couple of months have been going it was important to get that win.

“At the start of the season we always pride ourselves on our home form. We want to make Dockham Road a hard place to come again so getting the first home win was important.

“We’ll look at what we did well and what we can improve on as always and look ahead to going to Fylde on Saturday.

“Winning on Saturday has given us great confidence.”

Wilcox also hailed the impact of returning winger Nev Codlin, who started and scored a try having overcome injury issues that led to his departure in February.

“It’s great to have a good player like Nev back. Everyone knows what he can do and he played well against Ionians.

“He gives us a boost for the team and more competition for places. It can only benefit Cinderford to have him on the wing.

“He’s a strong runner and breaks tackles well, and he can help out with the forwards coming in off the line.”

One-on-one he will score out of nothing and he attracts defenders to him so if he can’t score then there’s space for others. His finishing ability is excellent.”