SEDGLEY Park assistant coach Steve Hazzelby was pleased his side came through a tough test against Hinckley but has urged the players to keep their focus right to the end in games.

Hazzelby accepted the Tigers dropped off their game in the second half at Park Lane, making the 34-29 winning scoreline closer than it should have been by the time the final whistle sounded.

Tries from Jack Metcalf, Leon Simpson and Dan Openshaw, along with two penalties from Steve Collins and three Oli Glasse conversions had the Tigers 27-5 up just after half time and Bob Birtwell’s fourth try, converted again by Glasse, saw their lead at 34-15 with 19 minutes to go.

But they were sweating at the end before victory was confirmed after two converted tries from Hinckley in the last 13 minutes.

Hazzelby told the club’s website: “Hinckley rang the changes which resulted in them scoring two more tries and a conversion which brought the final score to

34-29 to the Tigers and a hard-fought five-point win. We knew that we dropped off in the second half to let them back in the game and this is something we have to work on.”

Despite the desire to improve, Hazzelby was pleased overall as Sedgley made it five wins out of six to stay third in National Two North.

They started well and secured a bonus point by scoring four tries.

And he is hoping they can continue their good form at Chester on Saturday.

He continued: “Four wins and a loss in the previous games had put us in a well-deserved third place in the league, just four points behind leaders Caldy, ahead of what we knew would be a tough game.

“Previous encounters against Hinckley had always been difficult and we knew that we would have to put in a big performance if we were to take the points.

“We started strongly with a well-taken penalty from Steve Collins within the first five minutes.

“Hinckley came back with an unconverted try after 17 minutes, but we further extended our lead with another penalty from Steve and a converted try for centre Jack Metcalf on the half hour.

“Then just before half time, there was a wonder try for flying winger Leon Simpson after fantastic handling by the whole of our back line, converted by Oli Glasse to put us 20-5 up at the interval.

“The second half started well for us with a great converted try for scrum-half Danny Openshaw after one minute putting the Tigers 27-5 up.

“However, Hinckley, to their credit, came back strongly with two converted tries of their own after 50 minutes to bring them back in the game at 27-17.

“We continued to test their resolute defence and a great try for captain Bob Birtwell, after 60 minutes, gave us a bit of breathing space.

“This Saturday we travel to old rivals Chester which will be another big challenge for us.”