NEIL Shillingford believes he can restore Dudley Kingswinford to former glories after two desperate seasons which have resulted in a double relegation.

Reduced to the ranks of Midlands One West this term, Shillingford is determined to rid the club of their losing habit after assuming the role as Director of Rugby this summer.

A former DK player, Shillingford had a successful coaching spell at DKs together with Mark Lockley, before moving aside four and a half years ago.

He has already enticed several former DK players back to Heathbrook and insisted: "My aim is to get Dudley Kingswinford back to National League level.

"We don't have the scope to buy players in, so we have to build from within.

"We'd lost a lot of good players for a number of reasons, some of which had drifted away because they had become disillusioned with what was happening at the club, while others went to play at a higher level."

One of those players was his own son Stefan Shillingford, but the centre has now returned after two seasons at Stourbridge.

A health and fitness manager, Stefan has taken over the fitness and conditioning training in addition to playing himself.

Dad Neil claimed: "His decision had already been made before I took over the role as Director of Rugby. He had a young family and I think the long distance travelling was becoming a bit of an issue."

Fly half and prolific kicker Gareth Bown is also back on board at DK's after spells with Stourbridge and Old Halesonians together with pint-sized prop Richard Kelley.

Fellow prop Al Francis is also back in business after spending a long spell on the sidelines suffering from concussion sustained the previous season.

Shillingford has also added highly rated Kidderminster back row player Rob Phillips to his line up while another back row player Pete Knight remains as coach while Adam Blackford takes charge of the scrummaging.

Shillingford said: "I've been encouraged by what I've seen and feel we're three or four weeks ahead of where I'd thought we would be.

"We open our campaign against Stoke at home, which is a massive, massive game for us. If we can get a win under our belt, it would immediately match the entire achievement of last season and would really lift confidence."

The DK's have arranged friendly fixtures at home to Droitwich on Saturday, August 15th and then away to Bromsgrove on Friday, August 21.

Shillingford added: "I'd had offers to go and work with other clubs but the role at DKs came up just at the right time. To be honest, I couldn't really have contemplated going anywhere else, because the DK's are my club. It's a job I want to do and I will see it through!