Cinderford let the chance of a rare away victory slip from their grasp in the closing stages of their first-ever visit to National One newcomers Old Albanians.

The home side opened the scoring with an unconverted try from winger Chris May after 18 minutes, but Cinderford were quickly back on level terms when Nev Codlin broke a couple of attempted tackles to go over in the corner.

Mark Davies landed a drop-goal for Cinderford before Lawrence Rayner was on target with a penalty for OA’s. Then in injury time at the end of the first-half home scrum-half Stefan Liebenberg went over for a try under the posts, which Rayner converted to make it 15-8 at the interval. Ten minutes into the second-half Rayner put over his second penalty to stretch the lead, but for the next 20 minutes it was all Cinderford.

Hooker Tom Bozzard scored a try after a series of pick and drives close to the home line, with Davies converting, and he then landed a penalty to once again level the scores at 18-18. Replacement centre Rob Winchle intercepted and raced clear through to score a try which Davies converted to put Cinderford back in front going into the final ten minutes.

However despite being reduced to 14 men, following a yellow card for second –row Lloyd Bickle, OA’s hit back with Liebenberg crossing for his second try, which Richard Gregg converted, then deep into injury-time he dropped a goal to earn his side victory at the death, leaving Cinderford with a losing bonus point.

CINDERFORD: M Wilcox; N Codlin, J Adams, D Scourfield (Winchle, 57), L Stapleton, M Davies, S Arnott, J Brooks, T Bozzard (Woodward, 77), L Green (Smart, 55), B West, D Critchley; L Allen, W Foden, J Garner (Evans, 55). Replacements: J Smart, N Woodward, G Evans, R Winchle, K Done.