FRUSTRATED Jon Higgins has questioned whether his Dudley Kingswinford players have the desire to scrap for wins.

Every passing Saturday is resembling Groundhog Day for the Heathbrook outfit as they continue to lose close games, the latest being a 34-32 defeat at Westoe.

Of their seven losses so far this season, this one stung player-coach Higgins the most, coming against a side who were winless going into a fixture he had billed as “must-win.”

DK are now one spot outside the National Two North drop zone ahead of this Saturday’s derby clash with Birmingham and Solihull.

Higgins said: “The defeat on Saturday was a real blow. I came away from the game massively disappointed.

“No disprespect to Westoe, but if we can’t beat them I can’t quite see how we are going to get enough wins to avoid relegation.

“I’m beginning to wonder if we have the desire to fight it out in games like this.

“I’m looking at things and thinking, are we really up for it when the 50-50 balls are there?

“We certainly have the ability. If we weren’t good enough then it would be easier to take.”

Even taking into account the agonising nature of several DK defeats this term, the climax to Saturday’s game seemed especially cruel.

Simon Fletcher looked to have earned DK a share of the spoils when he went over in the dying seconds but with Gareth Bown about to attempt the tying conversion, a gust of wind blew the ball off the tee and allowed the hosts to charge down the kick.

Higgins said: “Because Gareth had started his run-up play continued and he had to try a drop goal. There is not one player on their side who I would rather have in ours.

“But whether it is confidence or belief we don’t seem capable of winning these games. If Saturday’s game had been played last year we would have run up quite a few points against them.

“What I can’t understand is how we can play so well against a team like Preston but lose to Westoe.”

Fellow player-coach Pete Knight is likely to miss Saturday’s derby clash, while Jon Tideswell and Tom Bissell (both hamstring) will also miss out.