HEAD coach Mikey Jones believes the only team that can stop Ludlow winning Midlands Two West North is themselves after watching his troops whitewash title rivals Tamworth.

An impressive 25-0 victory at the Linney helped Ludlow open up a three-point gap over second-placed Wolverhampton at the top of the table heading into the Christmas break.

Jones said: “There is still a lot of work to do but, having seen the teams we have already played, it’s our league to lose in my opinion.

“We just need to get the mindset right every game and if we do that, I feel we can go all the way.”

The division’s top four teams have all lost twice but it is Ludlow’s bonus points tally – they have picked up bonus points in most games, even their losses – that has pulled them clear.

Jones added: “The lads were a bit disappointed they didn’t get all five points on Saturday but to hold Tamworth to nil was probably an even bigger achievement.

“We go out there every game to try to get the bonus point win (four tries or more) and that was no different on Saturday, even with the conditions as bad as they were.

“We said that we shouldn’t let the weather stop us from playing the rugby we like to play and teams just can’t live with us when we do.

“Wolverhampton, Tamworth and (fourth-placed) Camp Hill are winning every week and chugging along but the bonus points we have could be massive at the end of the season.

“Without them, we would be second or even third now.”

The weekend’s horrible weather conditions should have suited the big Tamworth pack but Ludlow did not let them play in the first half.

Lots of early pressure from Ludlow resulted in two penalties, neither of them easy in the conditions, but Will Sparrow slotted both to give the hosts an early six-point lead.

Ludlow’s forwards won plenty of turnover and a series of pick-and-goes gave number eight Charlie Doyle the first try. Sparrow converted to leave the half time score at 13-0.

The second half started in similar fashion as Sparrow beat three players on a dart into the Tamworth 22 before offloading to prop Ben Chamberlain, who took two players over the line with him to score under the posts.

From the kick-off, Ludlow scored again as a sublime sidestep saw Sparrow leave two Tamworth players in his wake to cross for the hosts’ third try, although his conversion attempt came back off the post.

The visitors camped on Ludlow's line for most of the final 15 minutes but, despite having fly-half Keiron Pinches yellow-carded, the hosts kept Tamworth scoreless to record a fine shut-out.