RUSSELL Tinsdale is backing Wimborne to beat the South West One East drop following their confidence-boosting 42-24 home victory over high-flying Olney.

Second-from-bottom All Blacks went into the clash against the table-toppers at Leigh Park the underdogs following three reverses in a row.

But James Mikolajewski bagged a hat-trick of tries as the Dorset outfit sent Olney spinning to rare defeat.

Wimborne’s third league win of the season saw them jump to fourth from bottom as Olney, who’d lost only one of their previous eight games, dropped to third.

Tinsdale, who scored a try and also saw Dave O’Bryan and Jason Llewellyn touch down, said: “It was a big win for us.

“Our performances haven’t been that far away but in the last few weeks we’ve been a bit low on confidence.

“So this has perked everyone up and definitely made us believe we can avoid relegation and consolidate.

“We just need to get a few more wins under our belt. If we can pick up another two or three before Christmas it would put us in a good position.”

Tinsdale, whose charges have just been promoted from Southern Counties South, added: “We’ve adapted alright to the higher level.

“It’s just loads of injuries and unavailability have stretched our squad.

“It was pretty close to being our strongest team against Olney and that was key to our success.

“If we can keep this side together and only have one or two changes, then we should be able to get those wins and start January in a good position.”

Tinsdale, who saw Mikolajewski add three conversions and two penalties to take his personal points-tally to 27, continued: “James did really well for us but our forwards were outstanding.

“We dominated a slightly bigger pack and it paid off.

“Olney had a big set of boys, so we thought we’d starve them of ball by also having a big pack and it worked.

“They’ve scored a lot of points through their backs but we sucked in their defence, got the ball wide and came out on top.

“Olney’s captain said he was very surprised we were near the bottom but could play as well as we did.”

Wimborne: Unwin, Hunt, Tinsdale, Andrews (Tucker), Jordan (Hopkins), Murphy (Maltman), Morgan, O’Bryan, Llewellyn, van Wyk, Mikolajewski, Griffith, Brown, King, Vazquez.