TONY Gore says his Dudley Sports players need to be quicker out of the blocks if they want to end their winless run.

Second-from-bottom Sports have conceded early in their last two defeats against AFC Bridgnorth and Cradley Town.

Gore thinks being sharper from kick-off will go a long way to making sure his side end their nine-game run without victory.

He said: "We have got to stop the run of defeats, if that's with a point or three it doesn't matter.

"The group have been training well and morale in the camp is surprisingly high.

"We are confident and have good players. We have lost a few but still have a lot of last year's squad and we feel we are strong enough to get out of the mess we're in.

"A big part of that will be starting games a lot better and making sure we are harder to break down defensively.

"We have to try and get the first goal in games and give ourselves something to work with.

"We know that being strong at the back is important and we have been working on our shape and different ways of defending."

Gore said that no new arrivals were likely this week following the recent signings of Chris Likibi, Owen Osbourne, Hamilton Chiwara and Haden Smith.

Sports are due to take on Willenhall Town in the Birmingham Mid-week on Wednesday night before returning to league action away at Black Country Rangers this Saturday.

Tom Watkins and Josh Taylor are set to return.

A host of players have moved on since the start of the season but the manager is happy with his options.

"You have to remember that those players that moved on were just as much responsible for where we are as everyone else," said Gore.

"We have trained well this week and the confidence is there. We can continue to improve but just need to end the run we are on first."