Having steadied the ship with a spirited draw against Bromyard, Ludlow Town will be hoping to push away from the lower reaches of the West Midland League premier division in the coming weeks.
But it does not promise to be plain sailing tomorrow as Town head to one of the league’s current form teams, Bloxwich, looking to make a favourable impression.
They would be mindful that their last outing against high-flying Bewdley resulted in a six-goal battering two weeks ago.
But, despite being forced to again make changes, boss Chris Richards will be hoping his side can give a good account of themselves tomorrow.
“People said that Bewdley were the best footballing team in the league, but that’s not much consolation when you’ve just lost 6-0,” he said. “But the lads responded well to draw 2-2 with Bromyard last Saturday and we’ll need to show that kind of spirit against Bloxwich who, second in the table, will be a big test for us.”
He added: “We can take a lot from the Bromyard game last week. They have won three more games than us this season and are above mid-table but that’s where we should be looking to be.
“The Bewdley game was a rude awakening for the lads, but they bounced back well.
“There are no shirkers in the side, everyone worked hard for each other and showed a lot of commitment and the least we deserved against Bromyard was a draw.”
It needed a last minute strike from Luke Hicks to earn parity, again underlining the spirit in the side. Richards, however, is again forced to make changes with Adam Fisher a doubt through work while Jamie Russell and Archie McHamilton are both injury concerns.
Richie Lloyd is also out but Sam Strange and Bin Bin Yang are back in contention.
Ludlow had the better of a goalless first half last week, McHamilton unable to make decent contact from close range after the ball got stuck under his feet while Fisher glanced his header just wide.
But they got their noses in front after the break as McHamilton made no mistake when volleying home a fine cross by Simon Newell from the left.
However, Bromyard were back on terms after the hosts failed to pick up from a corner. The ball was fired in, keeper Anthony Prince missed his attempted punch to the resulting cross and the visitors duly dispatched.
The visitors then went in front in somewhat contentious circumstances when being allowed to break clear to score despite the fact that a five-man brawl was taking place elsewhere on the pitch.
However, Ludlow were not to be denied and in the last minute Russell put a good free kick into the box and Fisher glanced on.
The ball struck the hand of a defender on the line but Hicks smashed in the rebound to the hosts’ relief.
