Cinderford 36 Coventry 31 by John Wilkinson.

A FORWARD step for Coventry but one which should really have been accompanied by a first National League One win of the season.Leading 24-14 at half-time after a strong first 40 minutes, Cov went 17 points up after just 33 seconds of the restart when Greg Evans ran in a 45-metre interception try which Cliffie Hodgson converted.

That should have been it and moments later surely would have been but for a knock-on close to the Cinderford line with the home side rocking.

On such things, however, games can change and for much of the next half hour Cov were rarely seen as an attacking threat as Cinderford upped their effort and came back with 22 unanswered points to claim a win that takes them to the top of the early table.

Cov might just have tipped it back their way after Nev Codlin’s 77th-minute try put the home side in front for the first time since the opening minute of the game but Lewis Barker was stopped agonisingly short of the line as he jinked his way through before a swift attack down the left ended when Ben Toft’s kick ahead was blocked.

A dozen of Cinderford’s second-half points came when Cov were a man down, following a yellow card for Danny Wright for a late challenge. But pivotal as that was, they should look to other things for the cause of the defeat with too many missed first-up tackles spread across the whole game and too much possession kicked away in the second half when the situation called for a tighter approach.

Cov went behind inside two minutes, falling off tackles to let in Robbie Winchle for a try which Mark Davies converted, but No.8 Jacques Le Roux – who enjoyed an impressive debut – went over from the back of a close-in scrum to put Cov on the board after seven minutes with Hodgson converting.

Three minutes later a towering up-and-under from Hodgson put the home defence in a tangle and Cov worked a run-in for Brett Daynes, Hodgson again converting.

Cinderford drew level on 17 minutes, Davies converting a Jack Adams try, before play was stopped for seven minutes while Cov scrum-half Nathan Jones received treatment.

Click here for more on this article.