Saturday, January 22, 2005

Droitwich 5 Bedworth 27

Midlands Division Three West (South)

DIRECTOR of rugby Julian Bailey has not given up on Droitwich turning around their terrible season - despite suffering a heavy defeat at the Glynn Mitchell Memorial Ground on Saturday.

The coach is confident there are a few surprises left in the Midlands Division Three West (South) which could help Spa move off the bottom of the table.

However, Bailey admitted that his side needed to start getting results now after closest rivals Ledbury and Shipston stretched their lead over Droitwich to six points.

He said: "There are a lot of games to go and I think there one or two surprises left in this division.

"We still believe there's a slim chance of getting out of our situation.

"But we have to start turning results around now before the teams above really start to pull away."

On Saturday a Droitwich side low on confidence was no match for sharper Bedworth.

Jamie Faulkener grabbed the home side's only points of the game, but Spa's touch down was sandwiched between the five tries Bedworth scored.

Bailey took the positives from Droitwich's 12th defeat in 14 league games.

He said: "We played much better than in our last game.

"The discipline and enthusiasm was there and if we had been luckier we may have got something out of the game.

"Of course I am disappointed about losing as we need all the points we can get."

Droitwich are still struggling with injuries and the influential Gareth Knight is set to miss Saturday's match away at Silhillians (2.15pm kick off).

Jethro Tedman is set to keep his place in the side after returning for the Bedworth game after a lengthy lay-off.

Bailey said: "Losing Gareth is a blow, but Jethro is also a big player for us and it's good to have him back.

"We may be in a bad positiion but I still think we can beat a lot of teams in this division and can cause a few upsets.

"There's no way that we will be going away quietly and we can cause a few surprises."