OLD Halesonians suffered another setback in their bid to stay safe in the National League 3 Midlands having made more last minute changes to the line-up.

Rich Taylor and Jamie Keen are both still out through injury, wing Luke Smith was unavailable and scrum half Ben Tibbetts was not eligible to play. Ian Briggs stepped in at scrum half.

After 10 minutes Hales were penalised and Bridgnorth converting for an early lead. Hales could not get going allowing the visitors to score a try followed by two penalties giving an early lead to the visitors.

Hales replied with a pair of penalties, successfully converted by Briggs, to make the score 6 - 14 at half time.

The second half saw the home side fight back with some dogged driving runs from Ben Barkley, Carl Robinson, Loz Breese and Neil Mason. This resulted in a scrum close to the Bridgnorth line and a penalty try for collapsing, converted by Briggs.

After 45 minutes Bridgnorth came back, Hales lost Briggs to a yellow card while injury to Breese forced his replacement by Kieron Haynes. Pressure on Hales saw a kick charged down in the 22 and a converted try to Bridgnorth.

Again Hales were depleted with a red card for Breese who had returned to the action. The visitors took advantage and scored two further tries, one converted to win 13 - 31.

Hales face an uphill battle to stay safe in this league with a visit to leaders Broad Street on Saturday, kick off 3 pm.