STOURBRIDGE director of rugby Neil Mitchell is uncertain when he will be able to secure Caolan Ryan's return to the club.

The on-loan full back has now returned to Moseley following his stunning 36 point haul in last Saturday's 46-36 home victory against Preston Grasshoppers.

A late deal to extend his stay by a week allowed for Ryan to feature in the game.

However, he has now gone back to his parent club and won't be able to feature in Stour's trip to league leaders Hull Ionians this Saturday

Mitchell said: "It is a big blow to us after he put in that sort of a performance last week. He will be missed but that is the way the season has gone.

"It has been a season of having to do deals due to resources being so low.

"Continuity is a massive problem for us, especially from a coaching perspective. Often it has been a case of getting a team together and seeing what they can manager rather than working on things with the same group.

"We would love to have Caolan Ryan back but I don't know when that will be. We will continue to talk to Moseley and will hopefully be able to get a him and a few others after the Christmas period."

It was Ryan that stole the show against Preston.

The action was non-stop from the word go, Stour left wing Nathan Geekie grabbing the opening score after seven minutes on the overlap.

Two minutes later, Preston went ahead for the only time in the game when Allen carved through Stour's defence like a knife through butter to score and convert.

The remainder of the half was all about Moseley loanee Caolan Ryan as he snapped up a hat-trick of tries.

His first on 12 minutes was a superb solo effort as he waltzed past a posse of Preston players.

The second on 20 minutes, saw the full back spot a gap in the maul and race through to score.

His third was a bit more fortunate, following up Nathan Bressington's kick ahead where the ball fell kindly for the touchdown.

Ryan converted two of his tries and slotted over three penalties for good measure to give Stour a commanding 33-10 lead at half time, Allen adding a penalty to his side's tally.

Preston responded with two tries early in the second half, Fullback Matt Murray and Allan breaching Stour's defence, both of which saw Allen add the extras.

Ryan responded with two more penalties before a try from Preston right wing Scott Jordan somehow clawed Preston back to within 10 points at 39-29.

It took a try from Stour replacement Gareth Bown on 73 minutes to put paid to any notion of Preston's prospects of winning, Ryan converting the try.

However, Preston did have the final say when inside centre Sam Russell snapped up a try with two minutes remaining with Allen adding the extras.

Stour now go to Hull this weekend but will be without Sione Tuipulotu and Stefan Cooksammy.

Mitchell has brought in centre Damian Webb to fill the gap and Tom Jarvis could also be set for a return.