LUCTONIANS director of rugby Alex Davidson has targeted this Saturday's away game at Harrogate as a must win encounter to reignite his side's National League 2 North campaign.

The Kingsland side have lost their last seven matches to leave themselves 11th in the division.

And with Harrogate sitting third from bottom, Davidson is fully aware of the importance of the fixture.

"We just need the psychological boost of one win," said Davidson.

"We are still 11th, but have got Scunthorpe closing in on us, so we definitely need a win.

"Harrogate have been in the bottom three all season, so are definitely in a rut, but the danger is that they could see us as a team they could attack because we're in a poor run.

"We will be looking at them specifically this week, rather than just on ourselves."

Luctonians have missed a number of key players recently, which has affected their form.

Second row forward Stefan Psota will probably be out until mid February as he recovers from a broken arm, while Will Burton, who sustained a broken ankle, will be out until at least the end of this month.

Mike Cheasley is also recovering from an Achilles injury, while Dan Smith and Matt Hackley require scans on their neck and knee respectively.

"The one positive is that Alex Smith and Frank Kelly were reunited in the centre on Saturday," added Davidson.

"Alex has missed the last three weeks, and being he's the captain it was important to have him back.

"Johnny Morris also had a full 80 minutes, so we are getting a few senior backs available."

Luctonians lost 26-8 to Leicester Lions at Mortimer Park on Saturday and Davidson conceded that, while the effort was there, his side's set pieces were poor.

"Their line-outs were superior to ours," said Davidson.

"We kept at it, but we're just not good enough at the moment."

Leicester's domination at the set piece set the standard early in the game and a driving maul after 10 minutes set up Aniseko Sio to score; James Grayson converting.

Oliver Taylor was then driven over for another try before Louis Silver slotted over a penalty for Lucs.

Lions' Jonathan Boden was then yellow carded for a high tackle, but Lucs could not capitalise.

Luctonians were reduced to 14 men when Ashley Horner was sent to the sin bin and the away side took the game away from their hosts.

Sam Benjamin and Danny Hartwell added further tries, both converted by Grayson, before another yellow card was shown to Leicester Lions.

Henry Monkley scored a try for Lucs, but it was too late.