Cinderford prop Will Davis scored two second-half tries as edged out Old Albanians to gain a much needed win in a match of many unforced errors that failed to reach any great heights.
The home side had the advantage of a strong wind behind them in the first-half but Mike Wilcox was off target with two penalty attempts in the opening ten minutes. Lawrence Rayner was also off target with a kick at goal for the visitors, before opening the scoring with a penalty after 28 minutes. Wilcox levelled the scores just before half-time, but missed another penalty chance to give his side an interval lead soon afterwards.
Play continued to evenly contested in the early stages of the second-half until Albanians prop Sam Staff and second-row Billy Johnson were shown yellow cards in quick succession and Cinderford took advantage to score twice while they were off the field. First a lineout catch and drive was finished off by Davis and following a strong run by Lance Randall saw the ball quickly recycled and Davis took a pass in mid-field before crashing over near the posts, with Wilcox converting for a 15-3 lead after 65 minutes play.
Restored once again to 15 men the visitors were soon putting pressure on the home try line, but a mixture of solid home defence and more handling errors meant that there were only five minutes remaining when scrum-half Stefan Liebenberg went over to score from a quickly taken penalty, with Rayner converting. There was plenty of tension in the closing moments and a yellow card for replacement Chris Bundy but Cinderford held on for victory.
Man of the match — Will Davis
Cinderford RFC: Stef Hawley, Nev Codlin, Sam Hanks, Al Bryan, Chris Hawkins (Alex Frame 62), Mike Wilcox, Clive Stuart-Smith (Danny Pointon 47), Will Davis (Chris Bundy 73), Ryan Charles (Tom Bozzard 47), Elliot Booley, Lance Randall, Tom Hicks, Joe Garner (Marcus Brown 47), George Mills, George Evans