LUCTONIANS director of rugby Alex Davidson says his team need to stop their losing run as soon as possible – starting with this Saturday's trip to Wharfedale.

The Kingsland side have lost nine games in a row and are just five points above the National League 2 North relegation zone.

We definitely need to get out of this rut, but there are some winnable games," said Davidson.

"There's been some surprising results lately and even Sedgley Park look beatable at the moment.

"We have shown we can score four or more tries and are just two wins away from 10th.

"The bonus points we are getting could prove crucial, but I'd much prefer four or five points than one."

Poor line-outs and basic mistakes proved to Luctonians' downfall against Sale last Saturday, which resulted in a 25-18 defeat.

But Lucs matched their second-placed opponents for large periods of the game, which has given Davidson encouragement.

"For the last three weeks we have been putting on some good performances, but Sale showed that they are second in the league for a reason," said Davidson.

"They have some big players and they took the game away from us.

"We moved Will Hodnett to ten and he did a great job and it gave us the opportunity to score some well taken tries.

"Dan Smith has been struggling with a neck injury, but came back on Saturday.

"He gives us that experience up front due to his couple of years as captain and Matt Hackley also came on."

Sale were pinned back in their own half for the first quarter and it was no surprise when Ben Fowles went over for the home side, following excellent work from Joe Doyle.

Louis Silver converted to make it 7-0.

Sale then hit back with a Liam McGovern penalty before Lucs responded thanks to a Silver try.

Sale's response was to push Luctonians deep into their 22 and, as half-time approached, they scored a try through Sam Stelmaszek to go into the break 12-8 behind.

The away side upped the tempo at the start of the second half and Gareth Rawlings crashed over to take them into the lead.

Lucs responded with a Johnny Morris penalty, but some slick passing led to Andrew Hughes scoring for Sale.

McGovern's conversion made it 20-15 to the away side, but Morris kept Lucs in touch with a penalty in the 75th minute.

But late pressure saw Stelmaszek score at the death to secure a bonus point win.

Luctonians: Doyle; Grimes; Kelly, A Smith, Morris, Hodnett, Silver; Horner, Kirkby, White, D Smith, Morell, Fowles, Monkley, S Jones.

Replacements: Powell, Street, Price, Hackley, T Jones.