Drop proves costly (From Free Press Series)

Drop proves costly

SUDBROOK player-coach Mark O'Leary has admitted he's finding life pretty tough with so many of his players not available due to varying reasons.

The former South Wales Premiership champions struggled and fell to their third defeat of the season against Newport on Saturday with O'Leary and Stephen Phillips the only notable batters at the crease, hitting 36 and 41 respectively.

Once again though Sudbrook found it difficult to match the pace of the game and were left to rue a costly missed catch when Russell Pitman dropped an early ball that would have had Newport's Glamorgan opener Ian Thomas out.

Instead he went on to to amass a devastating 125 as Newport pushed onwards and upwards to an unattainable 303-6.

"We just didn't take our chances and at this level that is impossible not to do. It was a hard catch for Russell, but those are the ones you have to make in the Premiership.

"We can't blame him though. Newport were too good as the score line proves. We just let them attack us and didn't try and get control of the game," said O'Leary who took 2-48 with the ball in hand.

Newport's Ian Thomas was the catalyst behind Newport's win as O'Leary explained.

"He just made it hard for us to field. I don't think we put him under enough pressure and didn't adopt the right kind of bowling. He made us pay because of that."

Sudbrook could only manage 176-8 and O'Leary is now keen to turn his side's season around before they get stuck in a relegation fight. He admitted he's finding that hard though.

"We have to rebuild again at the nets, but I am finding it hard with the side because it's not settled and changes every week.

"It's hard to keep momentum going in a situation like that. Hopefully though we can turn things around against Pontypridd this weekend. They've got another Glamorgan batter in John Hughes, but we just have to keep the pressure on him and force him to make a mistake," he said.

Saturday's match starts at 1pm at Pontypridd.