DUDLEY Kingswinford moved up to third in Midlands One West after putting basement boys Longton to the sword at Heathbrook.

DK finally started to show their ruthless streak in the second half as they won 87-12 against the early season strugglers.

Director of rugby Neil Shillingford has now called on his troops to carry their second half showing forward into a key weekend.

DK will go to third-from-bottom Malvern while leaders Bromsgrove and second-placed Newbold do battle.

The top-of-the-table contest hands Shillingford's men a chance to cut the deficit to one of their rivals.

He said: "I was really pleased against Longton, mainly with the second half.

"We loosed up a bit in the second half and played some good stuff but we still had to have some strong words at half time.

"We had already picked up the bonus point but we were still a little off it and not being ruthless enough.

"It was about getting back to the simple things in the second half, starting with the forwards clearing the rucks a bit better. Everything built from there and we got the reaction we wanted.

"It's now about taking that second half performance and playing like that the whole game."

On this weekend's action, he added: "We'll just worry about ourselves and make sure we do our job at Malvern.

"It's another test against a side that haven't started that well but we have still got to go there and get our own job done before we look at the table.

"The league is starting to take shape now with a few teams starting to slip up. Now we're seven or eight games in we'll start to find out more about the teams around the top."

The Longton victory also saw Joe Dunn bag his first try after Shillingford had handed him another chance to shine.

The coach said: "Joe did really well again and it's really good to have more options in a key area."

Connah Jones may still be missing with concussion but he's the only doubt ahead of Saturday.