Manager Geoff Roberts was delighted with his side’s hard fought 23-21 victory over third-placed Darlington Mowden Park on Saturday.

The Tigers have now won five out of their last six matches in National League Division Two North and are hot on the tail of the top three.

Geoff said: “I’m chuffed with the performance. “I felt it was again a week of everyone doing a good job – a true team performance. “We did have a bit of a injury scare in the build up to the game when we feared Chris Parrott had broken a bone in his foot, but luckily he was okay and got through the match with an injection – which was a real bonus for us.

“It was only in the dying five or six minutes – when we had a player in the sin bin – that overlaps were created, so they were able to score a couple of late tries. “That did lead it to be a bit of a nail biter at the end, but before that we had a commanding lead.”

“In terms of promotion what it’s done is taken us into the mix,” said Geoff. “I feel we are in quite a good position. Everyone tries to knock the top dog off, but they don’t look so much at the chasing teams.

“From our point of view it’s quite a nice position to be in, as it’s nice to come from behind later on.

“We’ve played all the top teams now, and I know you’ve got to be careful of banana skins, but at least we have the chance of having quite a good run for a few weeks.”

The Tigers put in a good performance in poor conditions against DMP, who at the start of play were nine points ahead of Sedgley.

From the start, Park put pressure on the Tigers defence but, as the half wore on, it was the Tigers pack which began to dominate.

Steve Collins opened the scoring as he punished Park’s ill-discipline by knocking over two penalties in the 11th and 22nd minute.

DMP’s Grant Connon replied with two penalties, to level the scores, but it was Matt Riley’s drop goal on 28 minutes which separated the sides at half-time.

The Tigers had the bit between their teeth in the second period as Matt Lamprey powered over for the first try of the game in the 43rd minute. Collins added the conversion to give the hosts a healthy lead.

DMP did reduce the arrears as Connon kicked another three points but the Tigers were still very much in the ascendancy. The pressure paid off with hooker Johnny Mathews going over for the Tigers’ second try on the hour mark, with Collins again adding the extras.

In the final seven minutes, the visitors took the imitative as Collins was sin-binned. Cameron Mitchell went over for Darlington’s first try but Connon missed the conversion. Andy Smith added a second try just five minutes later, with Connon this time adding the extras to take the score to 23-21 and set up a nail-biting finish.

On Saturday, Sedgley Park are away at Hull, kick off 3pm.