BROMSGROVE Rovers manager Rod Brown is beginning to lose patience with his team and has started to wield the axe.

Defender Chris Duggan and striker Dean Curtis have both been released by the Victoria Ground club this week following the departure of Mat Birley to Tamworth.

Brown is also considering a loan move for AFC Telford centre-half Jimmy Turner ahead of Saturday’s British Gas Business Division One Midlands trip to Marlow (3pm) in a bid to stop Rovers leaking goals.

Brown’s side were beaten 4-1 by Gloucester in the FA Trophy first qualifying round last Saturday, just a week after they were thumped 4-0 by Nuneaton, also on home soil.

Brown said: “We have looked like a team that is mistake-ridden in the last two games.

“I’m the first one to be critical about my team if we don’t play well but I think Saturday was a different situation.

“In the first-half, we played all of the football and they only had one half-chance apart from the penalty.

“In the second-half, to be fair, they sustained a tempo but I thought we were matching them.

“But I told the defenders they should pay their wages to the rest of the team because they cost us three goals.”

Midfielder Kevin Banner could return from injury, while strike duo Chris Hanna and Luke Reynolds were fit enough to play in Tuesday’s 3-1 Worcestershire FA Senior Cup defeat against Evesham.

Meanwhile, chairman Tom Herbert has reiterated his intention not to sell Rovers in a meeting with the consortium trying to take over the club.