Hard days Knight for Wilson and Co.

DONCASTER Knights dropped to third on points difference in National League One after making hard work of beating promoted Esher at Castle Park.

Knights may never have looked like losing against last season's runaway Division Two champions, but equally they rarely looked like picking up the bonus point they had targeted.

Director of rugby Lynn Howells had called on his side to make amends for their sloppy performance against Launceston in their opening home game, but skipper Glen Wilson admitted that it hadn't turned out that way.

Said the No 8: "It was a very disappointing and if anything we played even worse than in our last home game. We are definitely playing better away from home.

"We wanted to put the record straight and we probably tried too hard and put pressure on ourselves.

"We didn't help ourselves by by trying to play rugby in the wrong areas and by making a lot of handling mistakes.

"But credit Esher, they worked hard in defence and got among us and made it difficult to get the ball away from the ruck."

Knights were their best in the opening stages of both halves and they took the lead on nine minutes when fly-half Mark Woodrow put linking full-back Anthony Carter over from close range. The half-back converted from wide out to make it 7-0.

Howells had warned his side of the dangers posed by the trusty boot of Esher's Neil Hallett, but his words appeared to fall on deaf ears in the first half and the full-back kicked the first of four penalties on 12 minutes to make it 7-3.

Hallett was on target again, this time from 40 metres, two minutes later to cut the deficit to just one point.

Woodrow eased Knights into a 10-6 lead on 17 minutes from the edge of the 22 in front of the posts.

Despite having been reduced to 14 men following the sin-binning of fly-half David Hewitt, Esher reduced the deficit with a third penalty to make it 10-9 after 24 minutes.

With French scrum-half Antone Nicoud impressing with some neat distribution, Knights made their numerical advantage pay just before Hewitt returned to the fray, when lock Bryn Griffiths touched down from a forward drive.

Woodrow added the extras for Knights, who had struggled to break the Esher line following their earlier success, to make it 17-9.

The Surrey side were reduced to 14 men again four minutes before the break when centre Toby Clouston was yellow carded.

Woodrow knocked over the resulting penalty to give his side an eleven-point lead.

Once again Knights, whose play had become increasingly ragged, struggled to press home their advantage and Hallett cancelled out Woodrow's effort to make it 20-12.

Knights' forwards piled on the pressure in the closing stages of the half and had winger Justin Bishop not dropped Nicoud's long pass in the corner just a couple of metres out, their efforts would have been rewarded.

Knights promised better at the start of the second half and the hard-working Woodrow extended their lead to 23-12 with a penalty just before Esher were back to full strength.

A good run by centre Brad Hunt could have produced points had the ball been kept alive.

Esher gave Doncaster a lesson in support play at times and looked dangerous on the break on several occasions.

After a promising raid down the right had broken down, flanker Lee Starling cost them an almost certain try when he neglected support on his outside and tried to run through Carter just outside the 22.

There was another let-off for Knights when Hallett missed an easy penalty.

Esher's hopes suffered a double blow on 70 minutes when Starling was sin-binned and Woodrow kicked the resulting penalty to make it 26-12.

Esher had the last word when centre Devon Armitage won the race to a kick after the ball looked to have gone forward.

Knights held on to claim their fourth successive win but they are going to have to play much better at home if they are to again turn Castle Park into fortress in view of the greater challenges ahead.

Knights: Carter, Bishop, Spencer, Hunt, Davies, Woodrow, Nicoud, Bunting, Boden, Tau, Griffiths, Kenworthy, Cook, Grainger, Wilson. Subs: List, Rawson.

Referee: Adrian Hartwell.