Dudley Hill are now masters of their own destiny following the nail-biting success against fellow National Conference Division One promotion contenders Normanton at Parry Lane.

There could be a number of permutations that will decide who goes up to the Premier Division next term but the simple reality is that Hill will claim one of the necessary top three places if they win at Castleford Panthers in their final match next Wednesday.

A glance at the scoreline does not reflect what a hard-fought encounter this was.

The Knights hit the front with an early try before Hill hooker Nathan Kitson worked the ball on the blindside to reach out of the ruck and plant the ball on the chalk.

Centre Neil Wall added the extras but it was the visitors who again regained the advantage when a speculative high bomb was allowed to bounce and scrum half Mike Hill gleefully accepted the chance to cross.

Home prop Sean Dickinson came to the rescue when he roared onto a short pass for a try straight out of the top drawer and, once again, Wall converted.

However, a head-high shot bang in front of the sticks gave the visitors an easy penalty to close the half at 12-10.

Hill’s spot-on tackling saved the day on the restart when full back Lewis Evans brought Normanton stand-off Adam Thaler crashing down inches short but the Knights replied in kind to thwart scrum half Danny Thomas following his 60-metre weaving run.

The deadlock continued, with neither side giving an inch, until the much sought-after decider came once again from the lively Dickinson.

He latched onto an offload from stand-off Josh Essex to power his way to the line and, when Wall made sure of the extras, the eight-point gap looked impregnable.

Any lingering doubts were dispelled when centre Craig Tyman used his strength to barge his way over and Wall kicked his fourth goal of a productive afternoon.