BROMSGROVE head coach Dan Protherough admitted he took a calculated risk when he rested a number of key players this week.

But the move spectacularly backfired as Bromsgrove were unceremoniously dumped out of the North Midlands Cup when crashing 51-0 against Dudley Kingswinford.

Both sides are pressing for promotion from Midlands One West this season and Protherough explained: "Some selection decisions were made for me as quite a few players were carrying bumps and niggles.

"We probably had six or seven missing from the previous week's victory over Old Halesonians, so I decided to rest four or five and give some of the youngsters a chance.

"It was a chance to rest players ahead of some tough league fixtures to come.

"We didn't know what sort of side Dudley Kingswinford would turn out with but it turned out their side was a much closer reflection of their first XV.

"DKs are on a bit of a roll at the moment and I got the impression they wanted to keep that going.

"We'd beaten them 57-6 earlier in the season and they didn't want a repeat of that.

"As a result, our seconds were no match for DK's firsts.

"It was a difficult one and perhaps one of those decisions you may look back on differently later in the season.

"That said, it wasn't a complete disaster as some of the players stood up really well.

"Last season's Colts captain Kai Douglas, Cameron McCann, Sam Bastock and Will Knight, a recruit from Birmingham and Solihull all did enough to suggest they could be in the squad for this Saturday's trip to Stoke.

"However I would question why we had to play the semi-finals of the North Midlands Cup now.

"Quite a number of clubs have pulled out of the competition but at least we upheld the integrity of the cup by playing the game.

"The important thing is that we now go and get a result at Stoke."