The travelling Hornets faithful that made up half of the Brewery Field crowd were rewarded by a sluggish, but comfortable win over Celtic Crusaders.

Penalised to a near standstill by the ridiculously one-eyed Michael Dawber, Hornets struggled to find any real rhythm, but still had way too much in the tank for a game, but one-dimensional Crusaders.

Hornets could have been off the mark twice inside the opening minute: first Chris Giles renting the home defence assunder, then Tommy Goulden's 'flat pass' to Lee Doren called as forward.

Hornets eventually broke some stuborn defence on ten minutes when Matt Firth's grubber rebounded off a post and Paul Owen reacted amongst static defenders to score. Mark McCully added the extras.

Eight minutes later Giles worked the ball wide to Sam Butterworth who dinked through to gether and score. McCully adding a superb touchline effort.

Relentlessly battered, the Welsh defence clung on, but on 29 minutes, Phil Cantillon's trademark scoot from acting half caught the Crusaders cold and he dashed in from 50 metres. McCully was good with the boot and Hornets were 18-nil to the good.

Mr Dawber's somewhat liberal interpretation of the offside laws gave the Crusaders a clear advantage in flat-line defence, but when Hornets transgressed from a scrappy play the ball, the resulting penalty took the home side 50 metres upfield where they shipped the ball left for Young to score.

Half time 18-6 - and the Crusaders' last visit to the scoreboard.

Hornets started the second half much like the first. Driving the home defence backwards, then Cantillon picking his pass for Sturm to swat off defenders and crash in. McCully converting.

At the behest of the referee, the game then degenerated into a stop-start mess. Obviously allowing the home side plenty of slack around the ruck and play the ball, Hornets were repeatedly punished for borderline calls: the penalty count of 13-6 to the home side telling its own story.

New recruit Ian Gordon was slottted in at out-half: but it served to only upset Hornets equilibrium as the supply of ball from the ruck was, at times, lumpen at best.

Hornets persisted and just past the hour Paul Owen showed good strength and determination in traffic to score by the posts; McCully converting to stretch the lead to 30-6.

Again, the referee allowed plenty of latitude as the tired Crusaders sprawled and spoiled, but Hornets had the final say with the excellent Chris Giles breaking up the blind side to score. McCully producing his only miss of the afternoon.

And that was pretty much that. Whilst Hornets had some pretty good individual performances, the whole was, at times, less than the sum of its parts. Certainly moving Sam Butterworth to the wing to accommodate Ian Gordon significantly reduced Hornets attacking potency. But it'd be churlish to grumble too much.

This Crusaders side has swept all before it and came with a fearsome reputation. Indeed, they are a serious vanguard for the development of the game in the valleys and their Chief Executive Chris O'Callaghan is demanding success. But they stil have a lot to learn. Whilst they do set piece football adequately, once play breaks down - from a dropped pass or a kick through the line - they have no idea how to scramble and cover. This shortcoming was something that Hornets didn't really exploit, choosing instead to play more drilled football that stuck rigidly to the gameplan: Bnd when they did - primarily from Sam Butterworth's tricky kicks - they had the home defence all over the place.

Finally, a mention for the Hornets supporters who made plenty of noise in an attempt to inject some atmosphere into the game. Whilst not the biggest of travelling supports, they are passionate and loyal and give their all in support of their team. Fans were told beforehand that it was the first time the club had actually had 'proper' travelling support - and that Hornets had brought more fans than all of their other opponents put together. So well done to everyone who made the long trip.