With a strong westerly wind blowing and playing on a small pitch, the Crows found the opening skirmishes difficult as the Oxfordshire side utilised a forward-based game plan.

Playing without much width, Faringdon repeatedly used their powerful pack to pick and go and they tested the Crows defence around the fringes of numerous rucks and mauls.

Karl Roberts’ side worked tirelessly to keep their opponents out but their tryline was finally breached when Silverbacks wing Kieran Archer received a pop pass from a ruck five metres from the line and crossed for a score in the 18th minute.

Although a difficult conversion was missed, Faringdon took the ball up into the visitors half straight from the restart, and after a spell of possession, fly-half Darren Clark kicked a 25th-minute penalty to give his side an 8-0 advantage.

However the league leaders fought back strongly and scored a brace of tries before the break to put themselves in command.

On their first visit into the Faringdon half the home side was immediately stretched as the Crows moved the ball through the hands, and this eventually resulted in scrum half Dan Stanton (pictured right) crossing wide on the left through quickly recycled ball and exploiting the overlap created.

The conversion was added by fly-half Mike Stepney and, immediately from the re-start, the ball was recovered and returned to the Faringdon 22 which was kicked to touch by the opposition full back.

A planned move called from the resulting line-out was overthrown by the Crows, but it was superbly gathered by man-of-the-match No. 8 Alex Ter Kuir, who reacted quickly to exploit the space in front of him to score 15 metres in from the touchline. The extras were added by Stepney once more and Crowthorne led 14-8 at the interval.

With confidence beginning to flow among the Crows, head coach Roberts urged his players to spend more time in opposition territory and to be more patient, and they dominated the third quarter.

A third try arrived in the 56th minute following a number of sweeping attacks, with right wing Andy Dawson finishing off a move as he dabbed down close to the posts which allowed Stepney to add a simple conversion which put Crowthorne 21-8 to the good.

However the Crows were unable to fully kick on in the second period, with the cold conditions and poor decision-making hampering the high-flying side, and Faringdon came back into the game when they continually challenged the visitors defence with another display of forward-based multi-phase ball. Eventually Clark was able to burrow through the bodies to get the ball across the line, although he was unable to add the extra two points.

With time running out, the fly-half kicked a penalty - awarded after Crows were penalised for holding on at the tackle - to cut the gap to five points.

However, despite Faringdon getting the ball into the Crows 22 in the final minute, the visitors were able to secure a turnover and cleared their lines to seal an important win.

The Crows host Farnham Royal on Saturday (2.15pm).