INJURY-hit Pegasus went down by just a single-goal to Dudley Sports, who held on to their eighth place in the Premier Division of the West Midlands League.

The visitors carried just too much experience for a youthful Pegasus side in a game which produced few chances at either end with the decisive goal coming from Sports' Kevin Linton four minutes into the second period.

With 16 players on the injured list and three suspended, Pegasus included a number of young players with teenager Adam Webb handed a first start in attack.

The home side, nonetheless, carved out the first couple of openings with Kiea Cowley ballooning an effort high over and then Tom Dawson getting a drive which lacked pace and was comfortably gathered by Sports keeper Dominic Richards.

Juniors were further disrupted on the quarter-hour when Jamie Cuthbertson, on his return to the side, was hurt in a heavy challenge and had to be replaced by Matthew Evans.

"We looked quite healthy today as I was able to name five substitutes," said Juniors boss Chris Hyde. "But two of them were injured, one was playing in a game for the reserves at Tenbury and was coming straight back in the hope that he would be here if we had needed him for the last 10 minutes and the other two were working until 3pm and 3.30pm respectively.

"So when you have an injury after 10 minutes, you have to put an injured player on and then take him back off when someone else comes through."

Dudley's Luke Williams sent a free-kick fizzing wide on 21 minutes and Dawson got in a good block to deny the visiting skipper shortly afterwards but Juniors continued to put together attacks.

Ashley Lear's swift break saw Richard Harrison's header saved by Richards and Harrison was denied twice again, from a shot and a header in the lead-up to the interval.

"I said to the players at half-time that the worst case scenario was a 0-0 draw," said Hyde. "But it's alien to some of them to grind out a point and we made the wrong decisions just after half-time to allow them to break out and score."

The goal came when Linton powered into the Juniors area and got the ball on to his left-foot to clip a shot past Nathan Phillips.

"When we went behind, we didn't chase the game as I would have wanted us to have chased it," said Hyde. "But that's pressure - whether it's one person leaning over a fence or 60,000, if it stops you playing to your full potential then it doesn't matter where the pressure comes from."

With skipper Paul Allam working hard at the back, Sports were restricted in their chances.

And, at the other end, Cowley showed some invention but was just unable to carve out the clear-cut chances which might have brought a point.

"We have a number of very promising players but at the moment they are a mile off being ready," admitted Hyde.

"We have 28-year-olds who are as good as our 18-year-olds but with 10 years of experience so the younger ones have to grow up quickly and have so much to learn.

"But every manager who loses games can complain about injuries.

"I still believe that we had enough on there today to have won that game."