Coventry RFC 33 Esher 31

Second highest attendance of the season experienced nail-biting moments in the final minutes of what was a pulsating finale.

The second highest attendance of the season at the Butts Park Arena, 1,354, experienced some nail-biting moments in the final minutes of what ultimately was a pulsating finale before a fifth win on the trot was achieved. All that left Esher still searching for their first win on the ground.

With some three minutes left, the Surrey squad could have been excused for believing that unwanted record was about to end after former Cov winger Spencer Sutherland claimed the fifth Esher try, with the subsequent successful conversion moving the visitors in front for the first time.

Having earlier led 22-5, however, Coventry were in no mood to let the win slip away easily as they immediately stormed back into the Esher half. There an offside decision went against the visitors leaving fly half Matt Jones to coolly slot over the winning penalty.

Still time for Esher to launch further raids, before a speculative kick was gratefully gathered by Cov skipper Cliffie Hodgson who booted it out of play.

In reality Coventry did have to work hard throughout with a squad still severely hampered particularly amongst the forwards.

So much so that it had not been possible to name a specialist second or back row player to sit on the replacements bench. Spirit and tenacity saw them through in the end to five more match points and a move back up to fourth in National League One.

Earlier the first half had been relatively uninspiring, both sides being frustrated by lengthy stoppages which seemed to occur increasingly whilst scrums were being reset.

Without being unduly troubled, Cov ended the deadlock on 14 minutes when after Will Hurrell had been held on the visiting 22 following an interception, with Esher penalised, a quickly taken penalty from Wayne Evans finally saw Dom Lespierre cross wide out on the right, Cliffie Hodgson converting superbly.

Clickhere for more on this article.