Harrogate RUFC can't afford to get carried away with stunning derby demolition of Otley RUFC

The Aces ran in five tries as they romped to a 39-7 home success over their local rivals, climbing off the bottom of National Two North in the process.

And although that bonus-point victory lifts 'Gate three places to 11th position in the table, their director of rugby was quick to stress the importance of not reading too much into one win.

"Without question, we produced a good all-round performance and deserved the points, but it is just one result and only the second game we have won all season," Wood said.

"It's a decent win and the boys did alright, to be fair to them, but we still have a hell of a long way to go.

"We are getting there, we are heading in the right direction, but every game is so difficult in this league, so we know that we have to keep on improving.

"If I'm being honest, I don't think that Otley had their best day. They were missing a few important players and they made a few mistakes and we were able to capitalise on those things."

Having suffered a number of heavy defeats during the early weeks of the campaign, Harrogate have been much more competitive of late, securing their maiden win when they sank Chester before suffering extremely narrow back-to-back losses to Sheffield Tigers and Hull Ionians.

Last time out, they threw away two extremely healthy positions and also missed a last-minute penalty as they drew 33-33 at Tynedale, so Wood was relieved to see his players get over the line eventually.

"We've come close to getting that second win on a couple of occasions recently, particularly at Tynedale, where we managed to let the lead slip a couple of times through our own errors,” the former England international scrum half added.

"The difference on Saturday was that we managed to cut out the mistakes, particularly when it came to our discipline. Our discipline was a lot better.

"We played in the right areas, we didn't do anything silly, there were no high tackles or us getting penalised for not rolling away in the tackle.

"That was the big difference compared to recent weeks, where we have maybe done enough to get the results, but haven't been disciplined enough to see the job through."

Henry Derbyshire drove over to give Harrogate the lead in the ninth minute of Saturday’s derby clash, Tom Steene converting, then extending the home advantage to 10-0 with a penalty following a yellow card for Otley’s Joshua Sarsfield.

Harrogate went further ahead when Junior Nuu burst through and Steene again added the extra two.

Otley received two further yellow cards for Leon Mudd and Noah Greenald to reduce them to 13 men, with Harrogate taking advantage when centre Junior Nuu crossed again to make it 22-0 at the break.

The ‘Gate forwards continued to exert pressure at the beginning of the second period and Will Hill touched down in the 43rd minute for Steene to convert.

The Aces lost a man themselves as replacement Semi Tokaduadua was yellow-carded, though this could not prevent them from adding to their tally, with Hill going over again on 59 minutes.

Steene booted over the extras and then kicked a penalty for 39-0, and although Otley grabbed a converted try through Sam Hodge late on, the rest was already beyond any doubt by that stage.

On what his side did particularly well, Wood added: "We controlled possession and pretty much controlled most of the game.

"We played our rugby in the right areas and credit goes to our nine and 10, Phil Wickham and Tom Steene, for getting us into those positions.

"The forwards did well, the set-piece was functioning to good effect and we scored some decent team tries. It would be unfair to single anyone out, really."

This Saturday, Harrogate visit Hull, who sit just one place below them in the league table.