Dagenham 21, Lowestoft & Yarmouth 32L&Y scored their first away victory of the season against a battling Dagenham side who never gave up.After the previous week's fantastic result against second-placed Canvey Island, L&Y were confident and were awarded a penalty in front of the sticks with only three minutes gone.

Dagenham 21, Lowestoft & Yarmouth 32

L&Y scored their first away victory of the season against a battling Dagenham side who never gave up.

After the previous week's fantastic result against second-placed Canvey Island, L&Y were confident and were awarded a penalty in front of the sticks with only three minutes gone. Lewis Davey made it 3-0.

Again, almost immediately from the restart, L&Y took control and a neat box kick from scrum-half Tom Castleton took the ball deep into Dagenham 22. Simon Coleman stole Dags' line-out ball and the drive was on. Marc Thomas scored the first of his hat-trick of tries for 8-0.

After another good passage of play and some thundering runs from Jake Titterington and Russell Wilkinson, fly half Scott Nelson sold the dummy and broke through. A last-gasp tackle by the full-back nearly halted the try but Nelson offloaded to the supporting Graeme Newton who crashed over the line wide on the left.

Dagenham held on for the half-time whistle with the score at 13-0.

Only one change was made at half-time, young Jan Sheijde for the hard-working Steve Powles in the back row. Lowestoft, with a slight slope and wind at their backs, from the kick off were under pressure.

After some poor first-up tackling L&Y conceded a try under the posts which was converted.

From the restart Dagenham lifted a gear and from a long clearance kick from Nelson, Dags' full-back offloaded to the speedy No 11 who evaded four would-be tacklers and sprinted in from 60 metres. The conversion and L&Y trailed 14-13.

Again L&Y switched off for 10 minutes and this allowed Dagenham to record their last points of the game. From more sloppy defending they broke through to score (converted).

After words from captain Marc Thomas, L&Y started to play the rugby that has brought them success recently. They were making the ball do the work and relying on the catch and drive from Simon Coleman and Ryan Oakes.

From a line-out L&Y got back into the game when Coleman took a lovely catch and was driven to within inches of the line as Dagenham brought the maul down. But Jan Sheijde crashed over to bring the score to 21-18.

With 20 minutes to play L&Y started to find rhythm. From a five-metre scrum they decided to drive Dags over the line and Marc Thomas touched down. Lewis Davey made the conversion to put L&Y ahead 25-21.

Dagenham tried all they could but L&Y took every opportunity to pin them back with long kicks. In the final five minutes the game was sealed from another textbook Coleman take at line-out. Dagenham halted the drive so Thomas decided to break away and barge his way over from five metres. Davey kicked the conversion for 21-32.

Winelodge man-of-the-match: Marc Thomas.

L&Y: Graeme Newton (Lee Protheroe 65 mins), Lewis Davey, Jake Titterington, Simon Coleman, Russell Wilkinson, Steve Powles (Jan Sheijde 40 mins), Ryan Oakes, Marc Thomas, Tom Castleton, Scott Nelson, Steve Adams, Myles McAlone, Daniel Boardley, Josh Fewkes. Replacements not used: Simon Titterington.

Lowestoft are away again tomorrow to Billericay.