Sedgley Park 22 Coventry 44

Winger Kurt Johnson completed his second try hat-trick of the year as Coventry coasted clear in the last half-hour, sustaining their strong finish to the National One season.

They had to come from behind, however, on their first league visit to this corner of Manchester and the performance fell some way short of the standard they have set in their post-Christmas run, which now stands at nine wins and a draw from 12 games.

Park, apparently fired up by being labelled a "tin-pot team" when they took away Coventry's unbeaten home league record in November, capitalised on a carefree edge to the visitors' game and Cov coaches Steve Williams and Mike Umaga delivered a few harsh words before the focus returned.

"To be honest, I thought we were quite fortunate," said outgoing head coach Williams. "It wasn't a good performance.

"Although there was a bit of an end-of-season feel to it, it's a win and we scored seven tries."

Coventry full-back Richard Davies went over for the opening try on 11 minutes, adding the conversion and then a penalty for a 10-0 lead, but Jon Feeley replied with a try for Park, Blair Feeney converting.

Crisp handling in the backs saw Johnson claim his first try wide out on the left with Davies converting well, but Coventry were caught out again before half-time when lock Louiz Holtzhausen crashed over from close range and Feeney converted.

The alarm bells were ringing two minutes into the second half when a loose pass from Jon Higgins was snapped up 60 metres out by Richard Welding, who raced to the posts.

Feeney added another penalty as prop Adrian Olver walked to the sin-bin, expelled for handling in a ruck, to leave

Coventry trailing 22-17 after 51 minutes.

A minute later, however, the playing numbers were evened up when Park No 8 Tim Fourie was yellow-carded for slowing the release of the ball, and Coventry raced back in front when No 8 Dan Farani started and finished a fine move between the posts.

Davies converted and Park's effort tailed off dramatically over the final quarter. as the Coventry pack took complete control and secured four further unconverted tries for Johnson, Craig Richards, Johnson again and finally second row Paul Clapham.

* Tongan international and former Bristol centre and winger Dave Tiueti has joined Coventry from Neath-Swansea Ospreys on a one-season deal.

SEDGLEY PARK: McGee; Feeley, Voortman, Hassan (Naylor, 40), Welding; Feeney, McCormack (Wilkinson, 70); Du Plessis (Roberts 70), Keys (Oxley, 47), Thomas (Collie, 77), Holtzhausen, Lund, Senior (Skurr, 60), Ponton (Hall, 64), Fourie.

COVENTRY: Davies; Richards (Jones, 69), Witkowski (Sanders, 18), Fifita, Johnson; Higgins, Chrystie (Perry, 60); Pulu, Gluth (Protherough, 64), Siveter (Olver, h-t), Clapham, Gulliver (Percival, 34), Rheeders, Buckingham (Gravell, 60), Farani.

Referee: K Rowan (RFU).