Three minutes into injury time, Nun-eaton skipper Glenn Southwell had a big decision to make.

The Nuns had been awarded a penalty within striking distance and the options were to allow former England international Tim Stimpson a kick at goal to level the scores and probably come away with a draw or kick for touch and go for a win from a catch and drive at the line-out.

Nuneaton chose option two but the Bees held out during seven and a half minutes of injury time to extend the lead over their rivals to seven points.

Blaydon are now second, six points behind, although both they and the Bees have played a game more than the Nuns.

"They decided to go for the win, which was a tough call for them to make," admitted Bradford & Bingley's head coach Geoff Wappett, "but we defended resolutely."

He also praised the kicking of his fly half and skipper Tom Rhodes, who converted both Bees tries and landed what was ultimately the winning drop goal.

"We spend a lot of time working on our drop-goal routine, and it worked. Tom's kicking is out of this world and for him to convert both those tries in that crosswind and drop a goal was magnificent."

And as for the ramifications of defeating the long-time front-runners on their own patch, Wappett said: "It puts us out in front of Nuneaton and it means that if we keep on winning we will win the division.

"We don't need any other teams to do us any favours but Blaydon are still going extremely well and Nuneaton have a difficult journey there."

As for the conditions, Wappett said: "The wind had a profound affect on proceedings - it affected our line-outs, and made it almost impossible for us to attack through the No 13 and No 15 channels."

Nuneaton, bidding to avoid a second successive defeat, went ahead in the second minute. Bees full back Ben Greaves mis-kicked a fly hack and, from a subsequent tap penalty, Nuneaton centre Jody Pea-cock crashed over downwind. Southwell was binned but the Bees still needed all their defensive fortitude to go in 5-0 down.

Bradford & Bingley went ahead in the 48th minute, No 8 Barry Jacobsz loitering on the wing to score with Rhodes adding a superb conversion. However, the visitors then lost their way as Stimpson landed two penalties.

Bees scrum half Joe Heta forced his way over in the 70th minute, Rhodes converting for 14-11, but Stimpson then landed a penalty as the Bees made a hash of the kick-off.

Rhodes calmly dropped the match-winning goal in the 77th minute.