NEIL Shillingford says Dudley Kingswinford's heavy defeat at Bromsgrove must be a wake-up call for his players.

DK were handed their first loss of the new Midlands One West campaign as the Boars bagged a 57-8 success at Finstall Park last Saturday.

The director of rugby at Heathbrook believes the improvement from his troops must come on the training pitch first and foremost.

He said: "It just proved to the lads that there is truth in the old adage that poor preparation leads to poor performance.

"That defeat has been coming for a few weeks now because we have really struggled to get the guys together on the training paddock.

"The team that has gone out on the pitch on a Saturday hasn't trained together and that has had a big impact.

"We were competitive against Bromsgrove but losing a try right before half time really set us back. We lost a bit of confidence when we went a few scores behind and were always chasing the game after that.

"They were well-deserved winners on the day but shouldn't have won by that margin.

"We now have to start getting everyone training together. There have been lots of different reasons why people haven't been available but a few of the guys have taken the easy way out and we need to sort it.

"This could be a really big wake-up call for us.

"We need to totally re-focus and I may have to look at shaking things up with the selection as well."

DK will now look to bounce back when they host basement boys Droitwich on Friday night (7.30pm).

"We need a big reaction but we also can't take Droitwich lightly because the games they have been involved with this season seem to have been quite close," added Shillingford.

"It's up to us now to show that reaction. Our next game is under the lights on a Friday night at our place so there is no reason why we shouldn't be up for it."