FORWARD Nile Dacres said Plymouth Albion were just delighted to return home with a full five points from bottom side Cinderford on Saturday.
Fourth-placed Albion, who have lost just once since November 21, were given a real fright in the second half by their hosts at Dockham Road before running out 34-22 winners.
Graham Dawe’s young side had led 34-10 after 52 minutes but Cinderford pulled back to within two scores and Albion found themselves hanging on in the last 10 minutes.
“I don’t think we were under any illusions before we went there,” said Dacres. “We had said all week that you can’t play games on just where you sit in the table.
“Cinderford were always going to fight for it and it is a confrontational place to visit.
“They had guys come in from other clubs on loan and they wanted to prove themselves.
“Regardless of the score, they were always going to play for 80 minutes, which they definitely did and they stretched us right to the end.”
He added: “When there’s two teams playing, it can’t always go one team’s way. We got put under a lot of pressure sometimes, but I think defensively that last five minutes was an outstanding effort from all of us to keep that margin we had.
“Regardless of how the game goes, beforehand you would definitely take five points.
“The circumstances just gives us stuff to work on.
“You are never going to play a perfect game, but we’ll take the lessons and hopefully work on them.”
Dacres and Herbie Stupple have been having a good battle all season to top the try scoring table.
Stupple, though, edged one ahead of Dacres and Matt Shepherd at Cinderford by scoring his 10th of the campaign.
“I was outside for that one, but he (Stupple) decided to keep hold of it,” said Dacres.
“Once he got that one I thought I might have one coming up, but at the end of the day we got the win, which is what matters. There’s still plenty of games left for me to catch him up, although I’ve got Sheppy to worry about now as well.”
Albion are back in action at home this Saturday when they welcome relegation-threatened Henley Hawks to Brickfields.