Cinderford’s poor run of results in recent weeks continued as they were beaten at The Northern Echo Arena by Darlington Mowden Park.
After winning the opening eight games in National One they have now lost four out of their last five outings and have slipped down to third place. The home team bounced back from a heavy defeat at Plymouth Albion last week as they played the conditions much better than their opponents, limiting them to one converted try. Two early penalties from Warren Seals gave the hosts a 6-0 advantage, before Cinderford hit back with a trademark try for hooker Nathan Taylor from a driving maul which Paul Morgan converted. That was as good as it got for the Forest team in the match as they conceded a series of penalties to allow Seals to extend the lead with two more successful kicks to make it 12-7 at the interval.
The early stages of the second-half saw Cinderford gaining the majority of possession but they missed out on a chance to score when the ball was knocked on over the try line. After this the momentum of the match swung in favour of the hosts and they increased their advantage when Freddie Lockwood powered over with Seals converting. Cinderford did create one more great chance to score but once again failed to take the opportunity and they were again made to pay when home scrum-half Euan McKirdy sniped over to put the outcome beyond doubt, with Seals adding the conversion.
Cinderford; Mike Wilcox, Will Baldwin, Liam Hemming, George Boulton, Ed Sheldon, Paul Morgan, Jimmy Williams, Tim Brockett, Nathan Taylor, James Elliot, Tyler Jerrum, Joe Dancer, Matt Lane, Jack Preece, Harry Hone.
Repls; Jenson Boughton, Joe Mullis, Aaron Ryan, George Angell, Reece Boughton.