FOR the second time in as many weeks Dorking were involved in a controversial and nail biting league fixture.

This time though the Mole Valley side were the beneficiary of some controversial refereeing decisions, with an opposition player being sent off for dissent, to come through and claim a valuable away victory.

Opponents North Walsham were two places below Dorking in the league table and hadn't lost at their home ground since October. To bring anything back from Norfolk was always going to be a challenge.

And the start of the game was something of a mixed bag for the Red and Whites. Matt Noble failed to put the kick off the required 10 metres giving the home team the psychological boost of a scrum put in centre field.

Both sides showed a willingness to play rugby on an extremely flat surface. Leon Davies, the Walsham lock forward provided a base for the home pack and South African skipper Roussow made a nuisance of himself in the ruck area.

Ben Lucas put in one huge hit to stop a threatening move in its tracks while Ben Tyler found himself doing the majority of the clearance kicking repeatedly smacking the ball back deep towards the Walsham end.

Spencer Richards defended tidily when called upon and Walsham's attacks were generally petering out before the 22-metre line. Walsham also found the Dorking set piece in fine form picking up from where it had left off laying waste to Bracknell the previous week.

James Catton took an early scrum against the head and Buckland and Bambridge had the Walsham scrum under pressure slowing down Sandberg, their chief attacking option.

Further pressure up the blind side saw Jason Geldenhuys charging down an attempted box kick which he gathered expertly to canter through to score.

With Noble now moving it around nicely further scores seemed likely. Nick Haigh turned up in the centre and showed lovely hands to release Scott Johnston up the far touchline. Dorking were certainly creating chances only to be let down by uncharacteristic drop in skill levels at critical moments.

And pretty soon the Big Field outfit were ruing not putting chances away when Walsham worked their way down towards the Dorking line from where powerful No 8 Pena Sokia rampaged over from a quickly taken penalty. Loveridge converted.

With half-time approaching the Walsham defence lined Noble up with a prop forward and from the inevitable break from the mismatch Walsham conceded a penalty for Noble to take the visitors to the team talk with the narrowest of leads.

At the break Ollie Cummings replaced Spencer Richards and Will Crow moved to full back. Walsham came out in a far more determined mood to preserve their proud home record. Gary Johnston was set back on his heels by some particularly agricultural defending and a Noble tap tackle saved a certain score. Not that it was all one way.

Geldenhuys was seeing a large amount of the ball linking well with Catton. Rob Clarke handled deftly in mid field and the Walsham defence coughed up a penalty enabling Noble to stretch the lead to four points.

Walsham's growing frustration at being unable to puncture the Dorking defence was to provide the game's defining point. First Davies man handled James Catton into touch triggering a free for all into the advertising hoardings.

Next to try the referee's patience was home skipper Roussow who was first shown a yellow card for persistent offending and then to everyone's amazement a red card seemingly for dissent. Noble made the most of the indiscretion smacking over the resulting penalty.

With a full score and man advantage the run in should have been a formality.

Instead Walsham were fired up by the apparent injustice. Van Poortvliet ran strongly to set up a penalty chance which Loveridge pushed wide. Try scorer Sokia then turned provider linking with Tom Holt to put replacement Alex Soutar in the clear for a fine try and set up a chance for Loveridge to convert and bring the sides level. In the half light of Walsham's floodlights the ball sailed safely the wrong side of the sticks. After the agony of the last minute loss the previous week Dorking were in no mood to relinquish these particular points. Inspired by skipper Armand Roux, Dorking stood firm in the face of a now full frontal onslaught. Mike MacFarlane replaced Harry Watts to bring his own brand of physicality to the cause. Noble again put in a crucial tackle and was joined by Ian McLean, who steered the side to the final whistle.

Dorking: Richards, S Johnston, Tyler, Clarke, G Johnston, Noble, Crow, Geldenhuys, H Watts, Lucas, Roux, Haigh, Buckland, Catton, Bambridge, Cummings, McLean, MacFarlane.