JON Higgins says Dudley Kingswinford must slash their penalty count to help turn around their form.

The Heathbrook side lost their fifth game in six at Hull Ionians on Saturday as their tough start to life in National Two North continued.

Winning at unbeaten Hull was always going to be a tough ask and Higgins was pleased with many aspects of the performance. But he believes silly penalties are costing DK points and was one aspect which caused the player-coach particular grief.

He said: “Our penalty count was once again way too high. Teams aren’t having to work so hard for their points.

“If you start to give away penalties the referee starts to favour the side which isn’t.

“We have to listen to the ref and react to him and I think maybe have a little more faith in our defence.

“A lot of Hull’s points came from penalty kicks and from catches and drives after kicks into the corner.”

Higgins remains confident DK can turn their fortunes around and his argument is certainly strenghtened by looking at the sides they have faced so far.

Their six opponents are all in the division’s top seven, with fifth-placed Preston Grasshoppers the visitors to Heathbrook this Saturday.

Higgins believes his side will face a crucial period in the coming weeks when they face the likes of struggling Westoe and Huddersfield.

He said: “We can’t get too downbeat about it, we have played some very strong sides so far. The real test for us will come in a few weeks when we face Westoe and the other teams who are below us in the league.

“I really don’t think we are a million miles away.

“We were quite competitive against Ionians and at times we looked just like we did last season.

“It’s just a case of ironing out the errors.”