UPTON travelled to the eastern side of Birmingham to play against last season's promoted team Birmingham Civil Service in this North Midlands One (South) fixture.

BIRMINGHAM CIVIL SERVICE 7pts, UPTON-UPON-SEVERN 27pts

Both teams have suffered injuries to key players recently and Upton were forced to make positional changes, play players who were not really fit but put club before themselves and also recall a star from the past.

Despite being a bright, dry, sunny afternoon it was probably the coldest day of the winter so far and the pitch was 'soggy' and tiring.

Upton received the long kick-off and quickly worked the ball back up field and Civil Service were only able to stop the movement illegally just in front the posts. Rob Heeley gratefully opened the scoring with a successful penalty kick after four minutes.

From the restart Upton's forwards gathered the ball and started to 'rumble' again and the ball was recycled to the backs but Civil Service backs were up very fast. The ball was fumbled in the tackle and was hacked on 30 metres towards Upton's line where flanker Harding gathered to score and Hodge converted for 7-3.

For the next 30 minutes play became very sloppy and it seemed as though both sets of players had their minds far away, maybe they were dreaming of being carried away on one the nearby planes that continued to roar and thunder down the runway throughout the match.

Suddenly Upton opened the throttles and began to believe in their game-winning backs.

After two years 'rest', the recalled Mark Tether showed that he has lost none of his expertise in getting the backs going, cutting back to change the angle of play and putting in telling, teasing kicks that kept the opposition guessing.

Winger Chris O'Neill regained the lead for Upton when, showing more confidence and determination, he burst through three covering tacklers to finish off his 30 metre run for 7-8.

Left winger Nigel Watson has been doing a spell of strength work which has helped him with power in the tackle. As half time approached he was unlucky with two quick sorties down the wing before being forced out just metres short.

The start of the second half continued where the first left off. The forwards did the 'donkey work' to secure the ball and then the backs pushed on.

On 50 minutes the Civil Service full back put in a clearance kick under pressure from skipper Ollie Jones and Chris O'Neill collected the ball 40 metres out. After a spurt up-field he chipped the ball towards the posts behind the advancing Service. Upton's forwards recycled scrum half, Ian Slocombe fed the ball and centre Neil Caldwell burst through near the posts. Heeley converted for 7-15.

Minutes later Caldwell was over the line again after he had 'read' a Civil Service move and intercepted the pass and ran in unopposed from 30 metres. Heeley converted again to take the score to 7-22.

The Civil Service pack were tiring fast and had no answer to the hard scrummaging of Upton's front row. This resulted in dangerous collapsing of the scrum on the blind side of the referee. Even when a replacement hooker was introduced he could not change the outcome. Rob Wynn moved to his favoured No8 berth for the first time this season and had his best game yet.

The final score came on 75 minutes when the ball was flicked along the three quarters line to where full back Alex Pimlow had joined the line. He created doubt in the covering defence by 'showing the ball' and he was through the gap and outpaced the defence to score in the corner with O'Neill in close support for 7-27.

Upton move up the table and are only three points behind the leaders but with no league match next week Upton's players have a rest before travelling to play a friendly at Bromyard next Saturday (November 27). Then it's back to league duty at home against Cleobury on December 4.