STOURPORT are sweating on the fitness of a couple of key players ahead of their return to National League action at home to Bowden on Sunday (12.30pm).

Their preparations for the home clash against their Manchester-based rivals were hit when they suffered two friendly defeats last weekend.

And to add injury to insult Dan Packwood (groin) and Dave Tuckett-Good (back) picked up niggly knocks along the way.

Captain Phil Lashford is hoping that both players will recover in time to join Mark Moss who has declared himself fit following a broken finger.

Lashford is keeping his own fingers crossed that the back to back defeats to Birmingham Univerity and Barford will act as a "wake up call" to his team.

Stourport opened up a two-goal lead at Birmingham on Saturday with England under-16 player Rob Allen, a recent signing from Worcester, capping an impressive debut with a brace.

But they let the advantage slip, eventually going down 3-2, and did not fare much better when they spurned a hatful of chances in a 3-0 loss to Barford the following day.

"Hopefully those defeats will give us a wake-up call because we need to start the second half of the season in good form," said Lashford.

"We're fifth from bottom at the moment and after Sunday's game with Bowden, who are one point above us, we've got games against two other teams who are around us, Bournville and Doncaster.

"It's really close in the league at the moment so we can't afford to slip up too many times."

There was defeat for the seconds as they went down 3-1 to Birmingham University.

Andy Watson hit a hat-trick - and picked up a yellow card for over-celebrating - as the thirds eased their relegation worries with a 5-2 win at Loughborough Students.

Pete Moulam and Mark McKinnon were also on target. The thirds have a double header this weekend, hosting Beeston on Saturday and visiting Loughborough on Sunday, both 2pm starts.

The fourths will be itching to return to action when they travel to Cannock at 4pm on Saturday after last weekend's clash with Loughborough Students was cancelled.

Stourport fifths remain stuck on the bottom of the table and favourites to go down despite battling to a 1-1 draw at Worcester Fourths.

A late goal from Neil Stone earned a point after Worcester had opened the scoring moments earlier. They host Belper at 4pm on Saturday.

After Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Cannock, mid-table respectability is the likely result for the sixths in their first season at a higher level.

Rob Claris gave them the lead but they failed to take their chances and were undone by two sloppy goals.

The sixths travel to Edgbaston sixths at 3pm on Saturday.

l STOURPORT Ladies had to come back twice to level the score with Bromsgrove, then went on to win 5-2.

The ladies returned to winning ways in this Worcestershire Division One clash, playing in a new formation.

Bromsgrove soon went ahead, but Stourport levelled with a drag flick into the top right-hand corner of the goal by Alissa Elford.

Once again the visitors went ahead, but Elford equalised before the break with yet another drag flick.

In the second half Stourport returned to their usual formation, and within 10 minutes took the lead through Louise Deeman.

Next to score was Wilma Martin, who swept the ball past the goalkeeper in at the right-hand post.

Bromsgrove did have a couple of efforts, but Stourport kept up the pressure, and Fran Long ran from the Bromsgrove 25-yard line, across the top of the D, and as Vickie Whitehouse pulled her defender back to the left, Long smacked in an unstoppable shot into the left of the goal to seal an emphatic victory.

On Saturday the ladies travel to Bournville, hit-back 3.30pm. Deeman is unavailable for this match, so her place will be taken by Kate Bailey.

Amy Miller and Alex Totney saw Stourport seconds to a 2-1 win at Evesham in a Worcestershire Second Division match.

Also on the winning trail were Stourport Ladies thirds, who won 2-0 with first-half goals from Teri Baron and Rosie Connolly.

Despite opening the scoring in their Worcestershire Third Division match, unfortunately the Ladies fourth team ended on the wrong end of a 5-1 scoreline.

Theresa Moss was the Stourport scorer, following a run through the home defence by Jess Trundle.

Fixtures, Saturday: Bournville v Stourport Ladies (3.30pm), Stourport Ladies 2nd v Camp Hill (2pm), Stourport Ladies 3rd v Bromsgrove (12.30pm), Malvern v Stourport Ladies 4th (3.30pm).