SOUTH Woodham Ferrers maintained their push for promotion with a 51-7 win against Campion on Saturday - despite being forced to play with 12 men in the first half.

The victory kept Woodham five points behind London Two North East leaders Diss with a game in hand.

And head coach Tony Woods was full of praise for the performance which saw his side overcome being shown three yellow cards in quick succession in the second half.

“We looked electric at times,” said Woods.

“Our back three combined to put together some excellent passages of play together.

“James Wilson returned from injury and put in a real shift.

“Competition for places is great in the club currently and James was chomping at the bit.

“When he got on he took his chance and played brilliantly.

“When we went down to 12 men anything could of happened but we were aggressive in defence and continued to push on.”

Woodham now face Woodford in a crucial clash this weekend and Woods is keen to keep up the pressure on Diss who are without a fixture on Saturday.

“We slipped up against Woodford when we played them a couple of weeks ago and want to right the wrongs from that day,” said Woods.

“We also want to close the gap and put pressure on Diss with this being our last game in hand on them.”

Woodham went ahead at the weekend with a try from Warren Duggan before Jake Rawinsky also touched down.

Wilson soon extended their lead with another try before Oli Trigg, Adam Brown and Tani Loka were all shown yellow cards in the space of three minutes.

But Woodham were still able to score with only 12 men as Liam Searles sprinted through to touch down before Campion hit back with a converted try of their own to cut the home-side’s to 29-7 at half-time.

After the break, Trigg put Woodham further ahead with another try before Campion were shown two yellow cards which enabled Loka, Searles and David Bull to touch down.