NEIL Shillingford says Dudley Kingswinford's failure to impose their will on their opponents is holding his side back this season.

DK suffered back-to-back defeats with a disappointing 51-28 loss against Bournville at Heathbrook last Saturday.

Despite leading at the break and being well in the contest, DK let in three late tries to slip to their first home defeat of the campaign.

Shillingford thinks his players are struggling to control games.

He said: "We weren't able to dictate the pace of the game once again. Other teams are able to control things and it is something we need to address.

"A lot of teams in this league have hefty packs and play from one set-piece to the next.

"We need to start realising that we can't always go head-to-head with some very physical sides and need to play clever.

"It is us that need to dictate things and maybe change the way we are playing slightly."

The coach was disappointed with the way his side let in late tries against Bournville and things the final scoreline fails to reflect the game.

He added: "It was a disappointing result because we were well in the contest until the end.

"It is about staying mentally switched on and we just didn't do that.

"We defended manfully at times and showed our threat going forwards as well. They never out-flanked us but then it came down to missed tackles in the centre of the pitch.

"Perhaps we should have put more points on the board when we were on top. This season is like certain periods last season when we would get into the red zone,in good positions, but then don't execute things well."

DK now travel to Burton this Saturday looking for their first away win of the campaign.

They will be boosted by the return of Stef Shillingford and Nic Adams for the clash.

"A lot of the teams at the bottom of the table are playing each other over the next month so it is important we pick up a win to make sure we don't find ourselves down at the bottom by the end of the year," said Shillingford.

"A good away win can change everything and hopefully we can get that soon. However, even if we don't win games it is important we came away with something from the games."