LUCTONIANS director of rugby Alex Davidson says panic will soon set in if his team don’t start winning games.

The Kingsland side are 10 points from safety at the bottom of National League 2 North and face a massive game at fellow strugglers Broadstreet this weekend.

“I’m not panicking, but it’s increasingly getting that way,” said Davidson.

“We desperately need two wins and four or five-pointers before the Christmas break to give us any kind of opportunity.

“We’ve just got to go again and see an improvement in the bits that were missing on Saturday, which is leadership and control.

“We were easily good enough in terms of individual skill to get a result, but that team performance and nous and knowledge are just lacking.

“But I put the challenge out to the squad now – it’s up to them to come back and prove to me that it is in the squad to come back and remain a National 2 side.”

Davidson added that he thought Lucs would beat Preston Grasshoppers at Mortimer Park last Saturday, especially as they went into the game on the back of an excellent draw at Caldy.

“Having had that reaction at Caldy, we saw the whole of November as winnable games, but maybe that’s back on the drawing board now,” he said.

“We have got a hugely young squad and, playing in those conditions, it takes another level of leadership and control and we still haven’t found that individual that can really rally the troops and play in a certain fashion. We were very late to develop as a squad due to farming commitments and other excuses shall we say through pre-season, but I honestly thought, with the result at Caldy, we had come through together.

“There was a lot resting on Saturday and it’s massively disappointing that we came away with nothing other than a losing bonus point.

“I was really hoping that, with Louis Silver coming back, with that bit of control at nine, hopefully we would be the team at the end of last season and start that positive vibe a bit sooner.

“His kicking was excellent, but in terms of the forwards, I want a dominant forward pack, especially in conditions like Saturday.

“Whereas Louis put his hand up to kick three points from range, we didn’t once get in their 22 in the first half, apart from when we scored the one try.”

South African second row forward Sebastian Freydell will serve the second game of his two-match suspension this Saturday after being sent off against Caldy.

However, Lucs have been boosted by the return of flanker John Kelly from New Zealand.

“John has come back and is playing a bit loose at the moment, so we need to get him back up to speed in playing in the mud, but there are glimpses there that he will be a real asset," said Davidson.

“Seb is out for two weeks after his red card at Caldy, but I’m not sure if the conditions would have suited him necessarily.

“He’s played a lot of rugby in South Africa and France, but on better surfaces, so I don’t think he would have added that much.”