Shrewsbury Rugby Club looking to end year on a high

Shrewsbury find themselves six points adrift at the bottom of Midlands Two West (North) as they prepare to head to third-bottom Old Saltleians – who are seven points better off.

"It's been a long few months and we would love to get a win," said Evitts.

"Old Salts are also struggling and are not the side they were, so hopefully we can go there and get the result we want and get our season kickstarted.

"We've just got to keep working hard and hopefully rectify the problems we've had this season."

Shrewsbury suffered a ninth consecutive league defeat last weekend as they were edged out 12-10 in a tight clash at Sundorne by Newcastle.

Shrewsbury's points came from a fine individual try from centre Brad Churchill, who played as well as anyone for the county towners, with Jack Pittaway adding the conversion and also kicking a penalty.

Shrewsbury picked up a bonus point but they wanted so much more as the result allowed the visitors from Staffordshire to climb out of the division's bottom three and widen the gap between themselves and Shrewsbury to eight points.

Evitts admitted: "We were disappointed not to get a win and were always chasing the game.

"They didn't really threaten us that much but we didn't do enough ourselves and were unable to capitalise on the chances we had."

Evitts added the bright display of Churchill was the main positive to emerge.

"He was solid in defence and attack," he said.

"Brad wasn't due to play but made himself available and he can cause teams headaches."

Despite another defeat, Oswestry took plenty of plaudits for their performance at Widnes last weekend.

It was their 12th defeat in a row, but the Eagles' improved display gave hope that a first win could be just around the corner.

They will now look to keep up the improvements in a home clash against Southport in South Lancs and Cheshire One.