LONG serving Dudley Sports boss Tony Gore insists he has no intention of throwing in the towel following another setback at Shifnal Town this week, writes Nick Pullen.

Sports slumped to their 13th league defeat in 18 games after receiving a 2-0 reverse which leaves his side adrift in second from bottom spot.

To make matters worse, Sports suffered their fourth serious injury of the season when play had to be halted for an hour until an ambulance arrived after Jamie Parker sustained knee ligament damage.

Sports have already been forced to rule out Matt Hanson, Ryan Smart and Matt Holland for the entire season and Gore admitted: "We seem to have accumilated more ambulances than victories so far!"

It didn't help that Sports had a car breakdown en route to Shifnal which deprived them of three players, leaving them with just the bare 11.

Problems mounted still further when new signing Mitchell Green sustained an injury in the second half which left him a virtual passenger.

It meant Sports had to bring on physio Pete Miller in a bid to make the numbers up.

Gore admitted: "It was a bad day all round. Just when I thought we were turning the corner and we get hit by a brick wall.

"It's a long time since I was involved in a relegation battle, but I'm not walking away. You just have to roll your sleeves up and battle it out.

"In the circumstances, the performance from the players against Shifnal was very good. We had a couple of players who haven't featured much recently and they started to tire near the end but I can only praise their efforts.

"Thankfully we haven't got a game this Saturday which will give us some breathing space and give me the chance to try and get some more players in."