NEIL Shillingford has challenged his Dudley Kingswinford players to maintain their high standards following a thrilling victory over promotion rivals Newbold.

The director of rugby hailed the character of his side after they overcome the league leaders 31-30 away from home last Saturday.

He now wants there to be no let up ahead of this Friday's derby clash with Old Halesonians under the Heathbrook lights (7.30pm kick-off).

Shillingford said: "It's a nice problem for us but we now need to work on doing it all again this week.

"It's a different challenge for us against a local rival who will be looking to come here and spoil our parade a little bit.

"It's a case of game on now with all three at the top all on the same points. It's about making sure we maintain our momentum and don't take our foot off the gas."

DK sit in third place but are now on 44 points along with Newbold and second-placed Bromsgrove. Only points difference separates the sides approaching the half way stage of the Midlands One West campaign.

On handing Newbold their first loss of the season, Shillingford added: "It was a top performance and a really good game as well.

"It was very much a clash of styles between the two teams. They favoured an onslaught from their forwards and looked for them to carry the ball.

"It meant that we had to defend well and match them and then try and play around them, which we managed to do.

"We started the game really well, were fired up and probably put in the best 10 minutes of rugby I have seen for some time.

"We went ahead but they came back and then when they went more than a score ahead we really had to dig deep and show some character.

"It was all about putting into practice the things we have spoken about before and making the right decisions when it really mattered. It was a really clever performance from us and we adapted to the referee as well.

"We needed two scores and went and got them. There was still time for them to come back but we gathered from the restart and managed to keep the ball and see it out for the win."

Shillingford has no major injury issues heading into the weekend.