Market Bosworth 7 Dunstablians 12

Dunstablians recorded their first away victory of the season with a battling 12-7 victory at Market Bosworth in Midlands One East.

And the result found a pleased man in coach Richard Pell who said: "We won ugly this week, but we have another two points on the board and I'm very pleased with the attitude shown by the team.

"We've got two wins on the bounce now and hopefully it will give us the confidence to get another home win next week and get into the winning habit."

As they did seven days ago, Dees started strongly and took an early lead through a Joe Murphy penalty.

Minutes later they thought they had scored their first try of the game, but Ben Murphy was judged to have been held up. However, Joe Murphy quickly added his second penalty to extend the visitors' advantage to 6-0.

The remainder of the first half was dominated by Dees, but they couldn't turn their possession into points as a number of errors proved costly.

And three minutes into the second half Dees suffered a blow when winger Phil Stock was shown a red card for foul play and the home side proceeded to take full advantage.

A catch and drive move saw Bosworth cross Dees' line and the resulting conversion put them into the lead for the first time.

Behind on the scoreboard and a man down, Dees' character was being put to the test and a combination of strong forward play and astute tactical kicking enabled them to stay in touch.

And their determination got its reward when fly-half Gerhard Swart slotted over a 25-yard drop-goal to make the score 9-7.

Ten minutes from time, Dees' forwards secured turnover ball and, after they made good yards through the centre of the Bosworth defence, Joe Murphy stepped up to notch his third penalty of the day to restore the Bedfordshire side's six-point advantage.

In the final stages, the hosts pounded away at Dees' defence, but they stood firm and, although they were reduced to 13 men when Andy Champ was sin-binned, they held on to the final whistle.

Dees will be looking to make it three wins in a row on Saturday when they entertain Matlock at Bidwell Hill.

Dees: 1 George Jenkins, 2 Ben Murphy, 3 Simon George, 4 Scott Oliver, 5 Kelvin Frost, 6 Andy Champ, 7 Glenn Brinkley, 8 Rob Thorne, 9 Ashley Warren, 10 Gerhard Swart, 11 Kevin Boland, 12 Haydn Annand, 13 Stuart Webb, 14 Phil Stock, 15 Joe Murphy. Substitutes: 16 Stuart Calder, 17 Shaun Mangan, 18 Scott Warren.