CINDERFORD suffered their second home defeat in a row against an Esher side who produced a strong second-half performance, to earn themselves five valuable points in their battle to avoid relegation from National League One.

The home side got off to a dream start when captain Harry Hone broke off from a driving maul for his first try of the match.

Mike Wilcox, playing at outside-half, converted for 7-0 after just two minutes.

The visitors hit back with a break from winger Daniel Rowland before Pierre Thompson offloaded it to centre Luke Peters who went over to bring the Surrey side back to within two points after seven minutes.

Ten minutes later Esher second row Adam Bullett then shot over the line after some careless kicking from the home team, with Sam Morley converting to give them a 7-12 lead.

With the Foresters’ scrum dominant, George Boulton pounced for his first score of the game which Wilcox converted for 14-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Five minutes later and the centre took an almost identical line and sliced through the defence untouched for his second.

Wilcox was again accurate with the kick for 21-12.

Esher were back within two when scrum-half Pierre Thompson found a gap and chipped through for fly-half Sam Morley to score and convert.

After 33 minutes Cinderford suffered a blow when winger Mason Tonks was shown a red card, but, just before the break, Hone went over for his second try in similar fashion to the first, with Wilcox again converting to make it 28-19 at the interval.

Esher’s Bullett came flying out the blocks after the break with a charge down to grab his second try which Morley converted.

Home replacement back Mike Austin then danced his way across the line and added the extras for his score.

Esher flanker Harvey Scott gathered a Morley offload and closed the gap to just two at 35-33.

Rowland got over the line to put the visitors back into the lead, and then replacement forward Sam Bullock put the game to bed with his team’s seventh try, both of which were converted by Morley.

Cinderford: Morgan Adderley-Jones, Mason Tonks, Jamie Forrester, George Boulton, Will Hendy, Mike Wilcox, Jimmy Williams, George Porter, Nathan Taylor, Shaun Knight, Dan Hodge, Tyler Jerrum, Matt Lane, George Angell, Harry Hone (capt.)

Replacements: Tim Brockett, Harry Edwards, Jonny Holliday, Dec Fissenden, Mike Austin.

Meanwhile, Cinderford United wrapped up the Counties One Western North title with a 36-14 win over Longlevens.

But despite winning the division at a canter, RFU rules mean they will not be promoted to Regional Two Severn.

Joe Mullis marked his return from injury with two tries and Will Baldwin, Will Anderson and Joe Langbridge also crossed the whitewash

Langbridge also kicked four conversions and a penalty.

A report on the club website states: “It is however with great disappointment that we have to report that as a 2nd XV, under the current RFU playing regulations the team is unable to gain promotion to Regional 2 Severn, something that is surely at odds with the true spirit of the game.”