Dons to get a taste of life in Division Two for the first time

The Dons looked to be in with an excellent chance of moving within three points of third bottom Batley with three games to go when leading 12-6 at half-time having played up the infamous slope and into the blustery wind.

But an indisciplined second-half performance, which saw a 12-1 penalty count against them, plus the double sin-binning of prop Luke Burgess and the late dismissal of second-rower Craig Lawton for throwing a punch, contributed to their downfall.

Head coach John Stankevitch said: “I was really happy with our first half performance. I thought we were by far the better side.

“Even though they were running down the hill, I thought we handled everything they threw at us. Darren Woods also showed what a good finisher he is by scoring two well-taken tries.

“We fancied our chances at half-time. I told the players to remain composed in the second half because there is often a tendancy to start throwing the ball about all over the shop when playing down hill.

“I am not normally one who says things like this but I have to say that I thought that the referee was an absolute disgrace. I think he lost control of the game

“It is all well and good being beaten by the better side, but we couldn’t live with a 12-1 penalty count against us in the second half.

“The referee also disallowed Damien Munro a try, when it was 12-12, after consulting with his linesman who ruled him offside.

“But I have looked at the match video and Damien was five metres behind the kicker. Had the try stood it could have made a huge difference to the outcome.

“Even then I still felt we could still win right up to Maloney kicking a late penalty.

“That robbed us of a bonus point and although we had come to win, that point would have kept our outside hopes of climbing out of the bottom two alive.

“As it is we can still finish level with Batley if we were to win our last three games and they were to lose all theirs, but they have a much better points difference than us, so we are definitely down.”

n Tomorrow: What now for the Dons?