KEYS director of rugby Robert Beale was delighted with the spirit shown by his charges to come back from a late body blow to take the spoils at the Bridge Field.

Gareth Williams' injury-time score secured the points and put Keys in a strong position in the top half of the Premiership table.

"It was a typical Bedwas-Cross Keys game," said Beale. "We dominated for long periods but they had a potential match-winner on the wing in Jimmy Norris and we were lucky he didn't see more of the ball.

"Full credit to the whole squad because they didn't give in and came back from that sucker punch after we had controlled the second half.

"I think the boys deserved it and that showed a great difference from last season where we lost those games after having so much of the play.

"It was a good, tough game played in good spirit. It was a hard, physical game and it was controlled well by the referee.

"The boys were disappointed with the first-half display but they put that right after the break."

Beale was full of praise for the Keys pack but was also pleased with the performance of centre Lee Humpreys, who made a number of line breaks for the visitors and often set the tempo for the side.

He said: "I think Lee was a little bit out of sorts in the first half, but in fairness he isn't totally over a flu bug. In the second half he ran some great lines and caused them problems.

"There is a big difference in that we have got a squad of players who can come on and make an impact - Carl Pocock did that, as did Dan Preece, Gareth Williams and Tom Lampard. Everyone who came off the bench made a difference."