CINDERFORD were left frustrated as they slipped to defeat at Old Bath Road as Rams regained their place at the top of National One.

The Reading side began strongly opening the scoring after six minutes when a quick exchange of passes put scrum-half Ed Hoadley through for a try converted by Fraser Honey.

The home side continued to press only to be repelled by some well-organised defence from the visitors.

The Foresters eventually earned themselves a foothold in the match when Joe Winfield kicked a penalty and the score remained 7-3 at the interval.

Rams were soon to putting their opponents under pressure again from the re-start and they took a stranglehold on the match when Ben Atkins and then Sam Robson took advantage of a couple of missed tackles to score tries in quick succession, both of which were converted by Honey.

Cinderford refused to yield though, and they gave themselves a lifeline when Tom Knight got on the end of an unstoppable driving maul to score a try, which Winfield converted.

The remainder of the match was pretty intense as both teams battled to gain the ascendancy, but it was the home team who had the last say when replacement Steve Bryant scored his team’s bonus point try in the final minute.

Meanwhile, back at home, Cinderford United made it nine wins from 10 in Counties One Western North with a 38-7 win over a determined Clevedon side.

Tom Reynolds, Will Anderson and Joe Langbridge scored tries for the home team in the first-half, with Langbridge landing two conversions,

The second-half saw Sam Baker and then Ewan Gwynne twice scoring for Cinderford, with Harry Johnson adding two conversions.

Cinderford (v Rams): Mike Wilcox, Stan Norman, George Gladding, Jamie Forrester, Will Hendy, Joe Winfield, Tom Knight, George Porter, Nathan Taylor, James Elliot, Dan Hodge, Tyler Jerrum (capt), Callum Thompson, George Angell, Jack Shields.

Replacements: Harry Edwards, Alex Chalkin, Jonny Holliday, Tom Anderson, Jimmy Williams.