YET more injury troubles for Stourbridge have led to a siege mentality in the dressing room at Stourton Park, says Neil Mitchell.

The director of rugby watched on as second rows Ben Hughes and Robbie Hurrell both left the field injured during last Saturday's hard-fought 25-23 away victory at Birmingham and Solihull.

The loss of Hughes for six to eight weeks and Hurrell for three to six week follows the previous weekend's injury to Ben Barkley.

With impressive full back Caolan Ryan now returning to Moseley, it means Mitchell once again faces some selection headaches ahead of this Saturday's visit of Preston Grasshoppers.

However, he says the attitude in the dressing room gives him reasons for optimism.

"You can sense there is a real siege mentality amongst the players now. They can tell it is just going to be one of those seasons and all they can do is dig deep for each other," said Mitchell.

"The atmosphere is at the best it has been all season."

Against local rivals Bees, Stour scrapped to a slender success following a particularly impressive first half.

Ryan kicked them in front with an early penalty before Bees fly half Adam Canning responded with two penalties of his own.

But Stour ratcheted up the tempo during the second quarter and plundered two well fashioned tries.

Sione Tuipulotu, who was a constant threat at inside centre, got himself on the back of a driving maul as Stour went over for a try on 24 minutes.

Three minutes later, Stour's large band of travelling support were treated to the sight of Robbie Hurrell displaying a stunning burst of pace as the big man powered his way over in the corner.

Ryan converted both tries to put Stour 17-6 ahead.

Canning threw Bees a lifeline by landing his third penalty with the last kick of the first half.

Bees proved much more threatening after the break.

Canning wriggled his way past several flimsy tackles to secure a try on 48 minutes which he duly converted himself.

But Stour were back in the driving seat when Nigel Mukarati added a third try, going over to score from his trademark catch and drive following a line out.

The alarm bells began ringing when Bees regained the lead on 70 minutes, flanker Ashley Scriven credited with the vital touch following a driving maul which shoved Stour back behind their own line.

Canning converted to make the score 23-22 - yet Stour instantly snatched the lead back with another Ryan penalty.

They had to ride their luck twice in the closing moments when the usually accurate Canning passed up two penalty attempts after Stour were penalised in the scrum.

Mitchell added: "I think we deserved the win in the end. It was really pleasing to come through such a tough test.

"I'm looking forward to the new year when we should be getting some more additions from Moseley and a number of injured players back."

Jon Higgins is set to step up for kicking duties against Preston with Ciaran Moore and Chris Depper also in line to help cover for absence of Hughes and Hurrell.