POOLER'S players rallied behind their under-pressure backroom staff in spectacular fashion on Saturday, lifting themselves off the bottom of the Welsh Premiership with a fine win over Cross Keys.

Now, ahead of this weekend's crunch tie against the old enemy Newport, Pontypool coach David Gray is confident his stalwarts will need no extra motivation - as they look to continue their fight for survival while winning bragging rights over their near neighbours in one swoop.

Gray said yesterday: "I don't think there'll be a problem with the Pontypool boys getting up for this one. We just need to go out there and sustain the pressure.

"We've had one of two injuries in the last week but we've a full squad again now and we're all looking forward to it."

Gray lost Darrell Cox just before kick off on Saturday after he had collided with Lloyd Burns in training, then skipper Gavin Lucas left the field with a knee injury in the second half. Julian Viner was also absent - but all are expected back fit in time for the big derby against Newport.

Commenting on the morale-boosting win over Cross Keys, Gray added: "It was nice to get the win. The boys played well and we should have had two or three more tries in the first 20 minutes.

"Instead we let them back into the game and took our foot off the gas for the five minutes before half time. I felt we lacked a bit of discipline but then fair dos the boys regrouped and after we scored again we controlled the second half quite well to be fair."

Gray added he was pleased with how his side had handled the pressure, and singled out Phil Sargent in the second row as his man of the match. He also reserved praise for Matthew Amos, Lucas' replacement Leigh Meades, and Sam Mills - who kicked 11 points.

His first of three penalties opened the scoring, followed by a Michael Poole try set up by an Adam Sliczny break. A Jonathan Williams penalty and a Will Jones try for the visitors brought Cross Keys back into it.

But Dominic Hitchcock's score at the start of the second period set the tone for a Pooler-dominated half which was finally brought to an end with another Mills kick, from 40-yards.

Pontypool: Smith, Hitchcock, Sliczny, Williams, Poole, Mills, O Jones, Giles, Jeunne, Blake, Rosser, Amos, Sargent, Lucas, Donaldson.