CAPTAIN Greg Wrights says his Himley side have been guilty of taking their foot off the gas after they slumped to their third successive league defeat.

Himley lost by three wickets at Shifnal last Saturday as they failed to hit back following recent losses against Tamworth and Wellington.

A late partnership between Jamie Turner (57) and Adam Finch (49) pushed their total to 217 after they'd been put into bat by the hosts.

Opener Steve Leach's 94 laid the foundations for Shifnal to reach their target in the penultimate over.

The loss sees Himley drop to seventh in Division One of the Worcestershire County League and Wright has now called for them to refocus quickly.

He said: "We have been playing on some poor wickets but we couldn't use that excuse last Saturday. It was an easier wicket to chase on but we still didn't see off the new ball well enough.

"We were four or five down too early in the game. Turner and Finch batted brilliantly to get to a total that was defendable but we really had an off day in the field.

"Steve Leach is a really good player and he did what our top order didn't.

"No one has got a big score much beyond 50 recently and it means we haven't had someone that others are able to bat around.

"It's not just the batting though, we weren't good enough with the new ball either.

"All we can do is work hard and refocus.

"I think we just expected to keep performing like we had been but we took our foot off the gas. We can still come back but we have to start performing a lot better than we have been."

Himley will now look to return to winning ways when they go to Leamington this Saturday (noon start).

Overseas batsman Sheham Fernando won't be available in time for the weekend but could feature the following week.

The Sri Lankan will arrive after a proposed deal for Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Aditya Tare fell through.