HEREFORD coach Luke Fisher hailed a 'tremendous' defensive display after his side recorded a memorable victory over Midlands 1 West leaders Dudley Kingswinford.

Tom Starkey's second half try was the difference between the sides as the Wyesiders battened down the hatches and sent their visitors to a second league defeat of the season.

Proud coach Fisher said: “It was a great afternoon down at Wyeside and nice to be back at home after 91 days on the road.

"It was an absolute credit to the boys, putting up such a performance in the dreadful conditions.

"The defence was tremendous, putting bodies on the line and I thought Ewan Duncan was the star man, an absolute tackling machine setting a lot of tempo in defence.

"In the second half Bryn Goodall gave us good position to put DK under pressure. The forwards were sound in defence, they were put under a lot of pressure and handled it well and Tom Ewins motivated his team with leadership from the front."

Early in the tie Dudley held a good field position, but Hereford stuck to their defensive plan and had little trouble in keeping the visitors out.

A Hereford break into the visitors' half forced a penalty which Bryn Goodall landed from 30 metres to give his side a 29th minute lead.

A few minutes later DK offended at the breakdown and Goodall landed a second penalty to double the Wyesiders lead to six points.

The league leader, who have scored 578 points in 16 games, responded and a momentary lapse in concentration saw Dudley expose the hosts resulting in a converted try to take a 7-6 lead into the interval.

The second half began much as the first had ended, with Dudley attacking and the Wyesiders defending comfortably.

Hereford had a chance early on to retake the lead with a penalty, but Goodall was just wide with a long-range attempt.

The Wyesiders were handed a tougher task on the 71st minute when they were reduced to 14 men after Lewis Jordan was sent to the sin-bin.

However, three minutes later they regained the lead after a long kick was chased by winger Starkey to cross the whitewash.

From then on it was one-way traffic, Dudley threw everything forward in an effort to score and the Hereford defence repelled all attacks to preserve their unbeaten home record.

In a frantic final five minutes, Hereford were reduced to 13 players after Matt Hill was yellow carded and the game ended with uncontested scrums.

However, the Wyesiders celebrated at the full-time whistle a well earned victory.

The win leaves Hereford adrift of the top-three, but with three games in hand.