STOURBRIDGE RFC supremo Neil Mitchell was delighted his side answered his call to be ruthless with a 24-23 win away at Southend on Saturday.

The tightest of victories was Stour’s fifth win out of six in National League Two and sent their Essex hosts to within a whisker of relegation.

The Stourton Park director of rugby said: “Southend RFC is never the nicest of places to go so to come away with victory was superb.

“I really think they looked at this game as a target fixture in their fight against relegation, just as Westcombe Park had last time out, so it was never going to be easy as they treated it as a last ditch effort.

“It was the same old story from us this year that the guys were resolute and played right until the end.

“They threw everything at us in the last 10 minutes but we were once against strong in defence.

“I think the guys are starting to discover that winning becomes a habit.

“It was a phenomanal effort from us once again not just in defence but also in attack, because we engineered four excellent tries on the day.

Stour will not return to action until Saturday March 21 when they host Cinderford and in a bid to get his young squad fresh for the occasion, Mitchell has given them a week off.