DIRECTOR of rugby Neil Shillingford vowed to ring the changes after Dudley Kingswinford’s dismal 7-5 derby defeat at Wolverhampton.

Dominant DK could not muster any more than their single score despite being on the front foot for an hour of the fractious clash at Castlecroft Road and were hit with a late sucker punch.

And while Shillingford felt referee Robert Cross had not helped matters, he insisted his troops could only blame themselves for allowing precious Midlands One West points to slip away.

The dismayed Heathbrook chief told the Dudley News: “It was a game we should have won. We controlled the first half without scoring enough points and then managed to get on the wrong side of the referee.

“Some major decisions went against us but we should have learned from our experiences from last year, recognised that was happening and taken all of that out of the equation by changing our game.

“They were always going to have their 15 minutes and I thought we had stemmed the tide until we took the wrong options and put ourselves back under pressure.

“That allowed them to score and we could not get the points to pinch the win. All in all it was very disappointing and it came down to poor game management.

“We had endured a bit of mixed week with injuries and were forced into a couple of changes but that was no excuse. Wolverhampton played old-school rugby, were very abrasive and battled through.”

Dudley hooker Jim Parkes forced his way through on 24 minutes but a series of missed kicks from Duncan Tompkins and profligacy in the Wolverhampton 22 proved costly.

The hosts finally gained some momentum amid a flurry of penalties and yellow cards with captain Rhys Morgan’s try converted by Bill Jones.

And with no way through for DK, Shillingford plans to shuffle his pack for the visit of Bournville on Saturday (3pm).

“There will be changes,” he added. “Some lads have come in and not taken the opportunity so we will discuss where we go from here.

“We are showing very poor game management in certain areas but fortunately, we have quite a big squad to choose from so we can definitely freshen it up.

“I would expect to make four or five changes across all areas, we just have to wait on various reports to see who is fit."

Stef Shillingford (hamstring) will be assessed with a handful of others “touch and go” following knocks at the weekend.