By Neil Bonnar

IF the last rites are to be administered on Sedgley Tigers’ season, they are determined not to go down without a fight.

It may look only a matter of time before relegation is confirmed, but the Whitefield men are prolonging their National League existence for as long as possible.

They have breathed new life into a desperately difficult campaign with victories in their last two games.

But the odds are stacked against them pulling off what would be the greatest of great escapes.

Second bottom with three teams going down, they must win all their last three games and hope neither Macclesfield nor Wharfedale pick up anything from the seven games left between them.

Regardless, Sedgley are enjoying finally having their full team available for the first time in an injury-plagued season, and are proving what might have been had the treatment table not been in such enormous demand.

“We have had two wins in a row, and if we had not had the injuries we have had we would have been very comfortably placed,” said first-team manager Geoff Roberts.

“We are better equipped now to take on anybody and we are proving that being without so many players for such a long period of time is the reason we are where we are. We’re still kicking because we won on Saturday and we got the result we wanted with Macclesfield getting beat by Wharfedale.

“Macclesfield haven’t got anything from the last couple of games, so you never know. We’ll just keep plugging away, enjoying our rugby and trying to win our last few games and see what happens.”

Saturday’s 29-19 home victory over already-relegated Cambridge was far from routine.

The visitors went 7-0 ahead before Sedgley hit back and were always ahead without ever managing to kill off the opposition.

They went in at half time 17-7 ahead through tries from Richard Oxley, Juan Crous and Steve Collins and a conversion from Matt Riley.

The lead was extended to 22-7 when Simon Parrott went over six minutes after the interval before Cambridge pulled it back to 22-14.

A Tom Leader try converted by Riley made it 29-14 on 58 minutes, but Sedgley could not settle after the visitors hit back with the final try of the game 18 minutes from time.

“They might be bottom of the league, but they only lost to Blaydon by four points the week before,” said Roberts.

“They are quite a dangerous side so you have to give them respect, which we did and came out on top.

“It was a funny one because, after being behind early on, we were ahead for the rest of the match but just couldn’t get out of sight.”

Sedgley, who played Widnes at Park Lane on Tuesday night in the semi-final of the Lancashire Cup, travel to Coventry in the league on Saturday before completing their National League One campaign at home to Rosslyn Park and Loughborough Students.