INJURY-hit Stourport coach Ronnie Hobbs was philosophical after a 23-3 Midlands Four West (South) defeat at Southam kept them second from bottom.

A Richard Dorrell penalty was their only score as Southam maintained their top-of-the-table position.

Hobbs admitted: "I have no complaints, we were beaten by the better side on the day. We gave them their first two tries.

"We've known all season that at this level you have to put 100 per cent effort in 100 per cent of the time because if you don't, you'll get punished. Southam did just that.

"We need to gain four more wins to stay in this division and so that's the target for us now."

Stourport are without key players like Nick Firth (cracked ribs), second-row Chris Hoare (knee) and Malcolm Bourne who is out for the season.

They were under pressure from kick-off at the weekend and were camped on their own goal-line for the first five minutes.

But two Stourport players went for a grub kick and left Southam an easy chance to take the lead which they converted.

The visitors hit back quickly with stand-off Dorrell's difficult penalty.

Neither side created clear chances in a war of attrition until almost the final play of the first half.

A long pass by Dorrell was intercepted, giving Southam an easy touchdown to take a 12-3 half-time lead.

Stourport were forced onto the back foot after a strange incident which turned a close game.

A second-row was controversially sent off for an alleged headbutt which even the Southam player denied happened.

Southam extended their lead with a third try and added two penalties.

Hobbs added: "We played some good positive rugby and I couldn't have asked for any more from the lads.

"Vic Little was again awesome and new player Neil Davis really earned his man-of-the-match at outside centre.

"Our morale is very good and when all our players are available, we can do well in this league as some of the results have proved.

"Our backs were infinitely better than Southam's and if we can just tighten up in the other parts of our game I'm very confident we can survive."

Stourport 2nds 20 Southam 12

Stourport gained a gutsy win in a hard-fought game which featured aggressive scrummaging and rucking.

Skipper Richard Gough said: "All the players were excellent and I couldn't pick a man-of-the-match."

Stourport took the lead on 10 minutes when Andrew Foster's quick tap penalty caught out the defence and John Connelly crashed over.

Fly-half Steve Griffin missed the conversion but then kicked a difficult penalty.

Southam scored a try after a mistake but Stourport replied with a great move as Steve MacDonald fed full-back Brendon Bentley to go over in the corner.

Foster added another try after good work by the scrum.