STUDLEY manager Kevin Rowlands is hoping for some Christmas charity after bombing out of the FA Vase, slipping into the Alliance relegation mire and losing a couple of key players to injury all in the space of 90 minutes.

Studley were dumped out of the Vase after travelling to lower league Express and Star Premier outfit Ledbury on Saturday but with other results in the Midland Alliance not going according to plan the Bees also find themselves in the bottom three.

And with some of the Studley squad picking up injuries at Ledbury the situation seems to be going from bad to worse for the Bees.

Nevertheless, an upbeat Rowlands said: "It's all in our hands and it's down to us.

"When your back's against the wall you usually find that something unexpected crops up and it wouldn't surprise me at all if we went on a bit of a run.

"But at the moment you can't help but feel that things can't get any worse.

"It's just about getting through it - there's still a long way to go and plenty of points up for grabs and a short run of good results would lift us from where we are.

"It's all about confidence and we need to inject some back into the lads."

The Bees are just one point adrift of Oldbury but five away from Warwickshire neighbours Stratford.

Rowlands added: "It was a bad result when you look at it and then seeing the results coming in with teams going above us maybe the one good thing from the weekend was Stratford losing and that keeps us in touching distance."