Huddersfield played valiantly to break their duck and register their first win of the National II North season.

Gareth Lewis’s side recovered from a tough start to chalk a dramatic 10-7 win over Stourbridge at Lockwood Park.

A 60-yard charge by captain Nick Sharpe gave Richard Brown the opportunity to score the winning try and end Huddersfield’s early-season drought.

It was a game of few chances and points, but enthralling from first whistle to last.

A scrappy start featured the sides exchanging scrums regularly through the first 15 minutes.

Stourbridge made the breakthrough after being awarded several scrums in a row, eventually forcing their way over the line, with the conversion following to put them seven ahead.

Huddersfield – with Tom Hodson back in the starting line-up after his RL duties with Doncaster and new signing Elliot Cosgrove on the bench – struggled to pick up momentum in the first half, although a penalty by Joel Hinchliffe got them on the scoreboard.

Both sides were struggling to create any clear openings with defence clearly on top, although Stourbridge just about edged the first half to go into the break ahead.

The second half started off much the same as the first, with the game being bogged down in the middle of the park.

Huddersfield finally made their breakthrough for a try with a little over 15 minutes left when Sharpe gathered the ball in his own half and set off on a burst which took him past three Stourbridge players.

After finally being stopped close to the line, the ball broke to substitute Brown who forced it over. Hinchliffe completed the conversion to put Huddersfield 10-7 up.

Hinchliffe had the chance, shortly after, to put Field further ahead with a penalty but he missed from a difficult angle.

From then on it was Stourbridge – featuring four England county players in Tom Jarvis, Mark George, Robbie Hurrell and captain Nigel Mukarati– on the attack, but Huddersfield defended their lead with tenacity.

Where they have cracked before this season, this time they stood firm and defended heroically to see the game out in front of a delighted Lockwood Park crowd.

It was the perfect way for Huddersfield to end a tremendous match between two talented sides.

Mukarati said: “Huddersfield played well and earned their win. At the end of the day they wanted it more than we did.”

Huddersfield: Owen, Hodson, Mitchell, Martin, Hodson, Hinchliffe, Jeffrey, Battye, Thornton, Sanderson, Thompson, Rhodes, Malthouse, Hoyle, Sharpe. Subs: Brown, Purcell, Walker, Cosgrove, Clarke.