CHAIRMAN Robin Edwards has thrown his support behind Stourbridge director of rugby Neil Mitchell.

Stour have now lost five games in succession after seeing their National Two North promotion hopes ended season. Two of those defeats have also seen Mitchell's men fail to register a single score.

However, Edwards believe the club's director of rugby, who signed a five year deal at the start of the current campaign, is still the man to lead them.

He said: "There is no question, we are 100 per cent behind him.

"He is a major part of this club and will be a significant part of its future.

"He has played a major part of helping us develop as a club and his presence in the game is very important to us as well."

Stour's woeful run of form continued as they slipped to a 31-0 defeat at Chester last Saturday.

It was another fixture with little at stake, both sides certain of retaining league status next season, but that was of scant consolation to the travelling supporters who saw a disjointed performance with Stour regularly shipping penalties and unable to hang onto the ball for any length of time.

Despite losing tighthead Mark George to injury in the opening exchanges, the Stour pack had achieved scrum dominance by the hour mark, forcing Chester to re-introduce subbed second row Ross White, but the visitors were unable to turn pressure into points and were denied even a consolation score as their composure deserted them.

"I have no great issue with the way we are playing and we certainly didn't look 30 points worse than Chester, but the basics just went awry," added Edwards.

"No one likes to see their team losing or failing to score but we are busy making plans for next season now.

"We have the nucleus of a strong team that we are keen to keep intact.

"It can be difficult to motivate players with nothing to play for and I think there is complacency in the camp, but the players know that themselves and won't need telling."

It doesn't get any easier for Stour as they face league leaders Caldy at Stourton Park on Saturday (3pm kick-off).

"It will be another big challenge this week against the leaders but hopefully the players can step up and put in a good performance for the fans that come to watch. We will be looking for a reaction this week."