COACH Geoff Roberts believes Sedgley Tigers’ knack of picking up bonus points could prove vital during the title run-in.

Despite poor conditions, The Park Lane outfit collected their ninth consecutive bonus point in the 32-15 win over struggling Huddersfield on Saturday to move to within two points of National League Two North leaders Macclesfield.

The one-time front-runners have now picked up bonus points in all of their league fixtures this term and with the top two pulling away from the rest of the pack, Roberts believes the extra points could be the key to a successful title bid.

“Picking up bonus points in all of our games has served us well so far,” said Roberts.

“They could prove the difference when it comes to winning the league or being in contention for the title and they are certainly defining our season at the moment.

“We are now six points clear of third place after a few surprising results at the weekend — particularly with Caldy drawing at home to Luctonians — so that opens up the gap at the top of the table.

“Even when we narrowly lost at Leicester we still managed to get the bonus point. That’s where we have an advantage over some of our rivals.”

Steve Collins’ early try and conversion gave the Tigers a 7-0 lead after six minutes.

But tries from Nick Sharpe and Nick Rawsthorne and a conversion from Chris Bell put the visitors into a 12-7 lead on 13 minutes.

With Tom Owen sinbinned for the visitors, back came the Tigers with Matt Riley’s unconverted try levelling the scores at 12-12 on 27 minutes.

With 13 minutes remaining in the first half, a try from Andy Riley and a conversion from Steve Collins gave the Tigers a 19-12 lead but Bell pulled the visitors back to within four points with a penalty before the break.

Despite second-half yellow cards for Matt Riley and Sharpe, the Tigers took control of the game with two further penalties from Collins, a try from Jamie Harrison and a Collins conversion as the home side won 32-15.

“It was a horrible day pitch-wise and weather-wise,” said Roberts.

“Even painting the lines on the pitch proved difficult.

“Despite them taking the lead in the first half we still played some pretty decent rugby and we always seemed like we were in control of the game.

“In the conditions, things did break down a bit more than usual.

“They scored their first try from a driving maul and we contributed to their second.

“We tried to be a bit too adventurous in the lineouts — throwing to the back.

“We over threw the ball, they dived on it and eventually raced to the line to score.

“It wasn’t engineered or developed in any way but it did make it a tight first half.”

“I felt confident we would win it in the second half. We kicked for possession and pinned them back which paid off because we won a couple of penalties.

“Once we got the fourth try it was game over, especially in the conditions.”

Collins notched up another 17 points and Roberts was particularly pleased with the performance of the Tigers’ fly-half.

“There were a lot of players in the forwards that could put their hands up for the man-of-the-match award, but I thought Steve ran the show.

“He started and finished the scoring and also made another nice break.”

The Tigers take on old foes in seventh-placed Stourbridge at Park Lane on Saturday.

“We will have to be at our best as they are not too far off the pace,” said Roberts. “Hopefully we can keep the home winning run going so we go to Chester in a fortnight with our tails up, which would be great.”