THE freezing conditions may have hit the sporting schedule hard but Dudley Sports joint boss Tony Gore for one isn’t too disappointed.

Gore is hoping the unplanned mid-season break will help turn around his side’s flagging fortunes which has seen them lose nine games on the spin.

With no guarantee games will take place this weekend, Gore believes his players have time to regroup before returning to action - whenever that might be.

He said: “We’re quite pleased about it, it’s our longest unbeaten run since September, three weeks without a defeat!

“In all seriousness when you have lost nine games straight you hope the break will give you a chance to turn things around a bit.

“It’s an old cliche but when you are winning you want to play at all costs but when things aren’t so good you tend not to mind the break.

“Obviously it’s been hard to train but we are going to try and do some work indoors this week.

“When we do start playing it will be like starting the season again, it’s a clean slate in many ways.”

Sports have no fear of a New Year fixture backlog, having already played 22 of their 38 league games in a front-loaded West Midlands Premier season which also features no Boxing Day or New Year fixtures.

When they do return Gore and Paul Blakeley will be without the services of young keeper Sam Pearson, who is will begin serving a three game ban, while striker Anthony Cox has departed for AFC Wulfrunians.

Arriving is Sam Wilkinson from Sunday League football, with Gore also close to re-signing James Taylor from Bilston.

He added: “We are a little disappointed Anthony has left us but Wulfrunians are going for promotion so it was always going to be tricky to persuade him to stay.

“We are pretty well up on everybody else in terms of fixtures played and we have been knocked out of a couple of cup competitions, so a fixture pile-up isn’t really on our minds.”