Shillingford can take positives from defeat
Neil Shillingford is hoping Saturday’s gritty display at Bromsgrove is a sign that Dudley Kingswinford are back on track.
DK suffered a fifth straight loss as they went down 19-15 to the Midlands 1 West leaders but director of rugby Shillingford believes there were plenty of positives to take from the display.
A raft of injuries to key players throughout December has left DK playing catch up on Bromsgrove and second-placed Newbold, although Shillingford is refusing to give up on the play-offs.
“There were plenty of positives to take from Saturday, especially after what happened in December,” said Shillingford. “Bromsgrove probably deserved the win but we could have nicked something.
“They are a good side but our performance was much better and we now have a number of players back from injury.
“We had been missing too many of our better players and that showed in the run of results we had in December. But there were some encouraging signs on Saturday.
“I don’t think Bromsgrove will slip up but we are still targeting the play-offs.
“We have to play Newbold at home and they also have to play Bromsgrove. All we can do is take it match by match and concentrate on what we do and getting our performances right.”
DK made a good start on Saturday and struck first when Charles Baffour powered through two tackles to touch down, with Sam Vaughan adding the extras.
Bromsgrove hit back with a converted try before a Vaughan penalty put DK 10-7 up. But the host struck again just before half-time to lead 14-10.
That advantage was stretched to 19-10 early in the second half before Matt Squires crossed for DK for the final score of the day.
