THE futures of some of Stourbridge's players will be on the line against Stockport this weekend.

Director of rugby Neil Mitchell insists that some of his current team have more to prove following a disappointing run of results this season.

The Stourton Park outfit suffered another defeat when losing 33-10 away at Broadstreet last Saturday.

Mitchell said: "The players should not need telling that they are playing for their futures against Stockport.

"If they don't perform at home against the team currently bottom of this league then I'll have no choice but to move some people on.

"I know they are trying hard but it is about being about to work as a collective.

"It is a must win game for us. If we weren't to win then I'd have no choice but to look at rebuilding."

Against Broadstreet, Stour were left playing catchup after shipping 13 soft points in the opening eight minutes.

With the benefit of a stiff breeze in the second half they rallied to pull it back to within a score, but Broadstreet finished the stronger with two late tries.

Stour created enough chances but their finishing let them down, they were kept at bay by the unerringly accurate boot of Broadsteet outside half Ben Cooper who landed all seven of his kicks at goal.

With Mark George and Eji Uzoigwe both recovering from injury, Stour had Steve Blackburn and Chris Depper performing essentially fill-in roles playing out of position.

Stour dropped the kick off, compounded the error with a penalty indiscretion and saw themselves trailing after less than a minute as Cooper slotted his first kick at goal. The hosts were back on the attack soon after, fullback Andrew Murray straightening the angle of attack to wrong-foot the defenders and score under the posts. Cooper struck again with another penalty shortly after, and with their scrum under pressure it looked like a Stour would have a deep hole to dig themselves out of.

They rallied, holding out the hosts until just before the half time when Cooper struck again to secure a 16-0 lead at the break.

Stour started the second half the stronger, driving a series of mauls towards the Broadstreet line that the hosts could only hold out by illegally pulling down. Referee Chris Bennett duly ran between the posts to award a penalty try. Murphy landed a successful penalty kick shortly after to put Stour within a score.

Sub Sione Tu’ipolotu’s appearance on the hour mark added some much needed momentum, he breezed through a gap in the defences to find himself with a 50m run-in and just the fullback to beat, unfortunately the ball was stripped from his grasp in contact and the attack was repelled.

Great mauling work by second row Ben Hughes set up a turnover that saw winger Nathan Bressington clear with just one defender to beat, he opted to chip rather than feed the support runners and again a gilt-edged opportunity was spurned as the ball went dead.

But back came Broadstreet, Cooper slotting his fourth penalty and eventually replacement Nathan Tilsley was worked over for a try with barely five minutes remaining. Stour responded by switching to a high-risk game, throwing the ball around and the inevitable occurred when Tilsley intercepted a pass and hared off to register the final score under the posts.

"It is clear that this league has improved and the player have been mentally affected by what had happened," added Mitchell. "They are lacking confidence but need to show what they are capable of."

One player to have already left the club is left wing Jamie Hearn.