SEDGLEY Tigers’ fourth straight victory was bitter-sweet for coach Geoff Roberts, who slammed bottom side Dudley Kingswinford’s spoiling tactics.

The Tigers ran in eight tries in their 48-14 victory to maintain fourth place in National League Two North, while fly-half Steve Collins consolidated his position as the division’s leading points scorer.

But Roberts described it as an “awful win” and admitted he was “happy just to get the points on the board and get out of there”.

Dudley are without a win having collected just six points this campaign, and while the Tigers had no trouble scoring against them, with Louis McGowan and Andy Riley helping themselves to two tries each, the struggling side’s tactics created an unpleasant atmosphere, according to the Sedgley coach.

He said: “Perhaps because they haven’t won a game all season they’ve got into the mentality where if an attacking team like ours turns up, they try to reduce their ability to put points on the board.

“Maybe they were resigned to it and were just trying to keep the score down.

“They came out to spoil, that seemed to be their game plan.

“It got a bit heated at times. There were a couple of little exchanges. It wasn’t a very pleasant atmosphere and it was probably a difficult one to referee.

“They were killing the ball at the breakdown and in the end they got two yellow cards in the first half for doing that.

“There were some nice bits of play but overall it was a stop-start, niggly afternoon with quite a bit of whistle from the referee. It was a win but it was a pretty awful win. We were just glad to get the points on the board and get out of there.”

With Jon Bishop ruled out with a fractured wrist for the final three games of the season, and captain Juan Crous also out after undergoing a groin operation, Roberts is now looking to give his second-team players a chance to impress.

“It’s just a case of keeping everyone patched up for the final few games,” he added.

“Mike Smith came up from the second team on Saturday. He played a fair amount of the second half and did well.

“I think we may look to bed in a few more of the second-team players – see how they have come on during the season and give them that chance.”

Sedgley Tigers are at home to sixth-placed Birmingham Solihull on Saturday, kick off 2.30pm.