VETERAN goalkeeper Stuart Turpin says the monkey is now off the Pegasus Juniors players' backs after they picked up their first point of the season on Saturday.

The Old School Lane outfit, who are largely made up of young players, lost their opening eight games to sit rock bottom of the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division.

But a battling 2-2 draw against Bilston Town Community has given themselves much needed confidence.

Nathan Jackson opened the scoring for Bilston shortly before half time before Daniel Elwell doubled the advantage 10 minutes after the break.

But Kyle Panniers reduced the deficit in the 69th minute before loanee George Hayes equalised eight minutes from time.

"It has been tough, we cannot lie about it because the results are there for everyone to see, but there has been some improvement during the last couple of games," said Turpin.

"We beat Fownhope in the County Cup, which gave us a bit of confidence and now we've got the monkey off our backs by picking up our first point.

"A lot of the sides we have faced have been in the top 10, so the aim now is to try and pick up our first win."

Turpin says his job is to try and help the youngsters as much as possible.

"They are really young and a little bit naive," he said.

"Going form under-18s to West Midlands League football is quite a big step and they're having to learn quickly.

"Sometime's we've only been able to pick 11 or 12 players, so we have been struggling with numbers.

"So when you've got experienced heads like myself, Ben Price and Paul Allam, it's about helping through games by communicating on the pitch."

Pegasus are next in action tomorrow night when they make the short trip to Hereford Lads Club before hosting fellow strugglers Wellington Amateurs on Saturday.