NEIL Shillingford says Dudley Kingswinford have no time to dwell on the derby defeat to Old Halesonians as they look to maintain their promotion push this season.

DK suffered a 24-22 loss under the lights at Heathbrook last Friday as they lost ground on new leaders Bromsgrove.

An early Danny Hawkins score, converted by Nick Adams, and tries from Stef Shillingford, Will Hancocks and James Jefferson saw DK leading 22-17 heading into the closing stages.

However, the visitors powered back to bag a late converted try to take the bragging rights.

The director of rugby feels his side got dragged into a derby battle and also struggled playing under the floodlights.

He explained: "We got sucked into the local rivalry to some extent.

"We've also struggled to play under the lights again, which has happened before this season. It is a different proposition when the ball is coming out of the lights.

"They had a good kicking game and really put the pressure on.

"We still managed to play some really good rugby but we didn't have enough possession overall. When we did get the ball we gave it away too easily.

"Another thing we struggled with was the touch judge. I'm not sure why but because it was a Friday we were sent a team of three officials for the game. That has also happened before and each time they have been poor. We were called offside six times in the closing stages and it really stopped our momentum.

"It is just another learning curve and something we'll have to get used to because there will be more of these games on Friday nights."

Shillingford is keen to move on quickly as his side prepares for this Saturday's trip to Stoke.

He said: "We still got two points out of it and are still right in the mix at the top. We'll just have to take the defeat on the chin and move on quickly.

"There is no time to dwell on it because we now have another tough game away at Stoke this weekend.

"It is always a difficult place to go on a slow, heavy pitch.

"We'll analyse it but won't dwell on it. It's important we refocus and go again."

DK will assess the fitness of Jordan Brookes (head), Matt Perks (knee) and Aaron Hudson (head) before the weekend.