DUDLEY Kingswinford Director of Rugby Neil Shillingford is keeping his fingers crossed that versatile Gareth Bown will be back in action this week for the visit of second placed Worcester Wanderers to Heathbrook.

Bown, who had spells at both Stourbridge and Old Halesonians last season having previously been part of DK's National League side, has been sidelined with a knee injury.

But Bown, who can play in a variety of positions across the backs, is also an accomplished goal kicker and can compliment current kicker Duncan Tompkins.

After suffering two season's of successive relegation, Shillingford was under no illusions there would be a quick fix but believes the club can turn their fortunes around in Midlands One West.

He said: "The objective was always to get to Christmas and re-assess the situation.

"I feel if we could get that first away win, we could then get onto a good run of results.

"We came close last week with a 16-12 defeat at Crewe and Nantwich, but it was a game we could have easily won and there were plenty of positives to take out of the game.

"We didn't have Pete Knight, who tweaked his groin the previous week against Burton and we missed his experience at No.8, which would probably made the difference.

"We're regularly getting between 35 to 40 players at senior training each week in addition to the third and fourth teams so there's a little bit of strength in depth there at the moment."