National Two!!!

Recruitment and improvement are crucial if Cinderford are to survive the rigours of National League Two next season, according to stalwart Rob James. The experience of their streetwise pack proved key as they held their nerve to beat Darlington Mowden Park 15-14 in Saturday's promotion play-off at Dockham Road.

But back row James - at 35, the second oldest member of the squad after prop Andy Deacon - is the first to admit that the Foresters must reduce the average age of the squad to build a solid base for the future.

"Anyone who watched this play-off game will know that we've got to improve because it is going to be incredibly tough next season," said James, who put in a man of the match performance against Mowden.

"But lots of people here today also saw the calibre of the performance we put in against Mounts Bay and London Scottish, and if we can put in performances of that quality week in, week out, I am confident we will be competitive.

"I've no doubt the club will look to recruit in the summer. The age thing is a huge factor. Our older players may be good, but they will only be around for so long.

"We do have some great youngsters coming through though, and I look forward to competing with quality young players like Jed Hooper for my place.

"I'm sure other guys will come in too, but we have to recruit quality.

"It's not about having a massive squad, it's about having a squad of quality players."

Former Cinderford skipper James felt that nerves had affected their performance against National League Three North runners-up Mowden, but disappointment at their display did not detract from the delight of clinching promotion.

"It's all pretty emotional," said a visibly affected James after the final whistle.

"We didn't get out of the traps and they dominated the first 10 minutes.

"We didn't have the most positive of warm-ups, and with the calibre of players we have that has to be down to nerves.

"We gifted them a soft try but we dominated the rest of the first half, and we didn't want the half-time break to come.

"We went in on top and came out with great intentions, but it's happened to us before this season when it doesn't really happen for us second half.

"That's got to be down to certain technical things. We didn't take points when they were on offer, we missed some simple kicks, we lost a bit of shape, the forwards were missing line-outs, we dropped ball in contact and the backs were not breaking the line.

"It wasn't a perfect performance and, in an ideal world, I'm sure both teams would have loved to play out a 33-32 epic.

"Darlington had some good structure in their back-line and they wanted to attack, but we held out.

"They tried to put a lot of width on the ball but we gained control of the ball in the last 10 minutes, and we don't have the best defence in both National League Threes for nothing.

"We put ourselves under unnecessary pressure at times during the game, but we pride ourselves on our defence and it saw us through."