BARNT Green skipper Andy Sutton urged his players to stick together in the wake of another woeful batting display against Walsall this week in the Birmingham League Premier Division.

The Green were skittled out for just 48 runs as Walsall's seam bowling attack ran riot.

Put into bat, the Green were soon in trouble as they lost openers Jamie Harrison and Tom Brown without scoring and found themselves at three for two, a position from which they never recovered.

Only Sutton with 17 and Ed Pollock on 16 managed to reach double figures while wickets fell at regular intervals, their last six tumbling for only 11 runs.

Walsall then made light of their reply, racing to a winning 53 for two in 7.2 overs.

Sutton admitted: "It was a toss I'd hoped to win. It wass a cloudy, miserable day and Walsall's wicket always does a bit at the best of times.

"Walsall have four seam bowlers who are well suited to their wicket aqnd they bowled good and straight, tying us down, while we seemed to nick everything.

"I've not been happy with our batting for the last four or five weeks and we just need that bit of luck that we're not getting at the moment.

"It's not for the want of trying.I look at opur top seven or eight players and on paper, we're still a very good side.

"We're all hitting enough balls in the week, but we're not clicking at the moment. We have to stick together and hopewfully, that bit of luck we need will come our way.

"When Walsall replied, they came out and did the exact opposite to us by swinging the bat. The difference was that the ball was just dropping for them in just the right places, while others were going through the slips. In the end, we just didn't have enough runs to defend."

Saturday's eight wicket defeat to Walsall leaves Barnt Green just six points above bottom spot but Sutton doesn't envisage many changes to the side when they visit Wolverhampton this coming weekend and instead keeps faith with his current batting line-up.

He claimed: "They've all proved themselves in the past and still have a great deal of credit in the bank.

"We haven't got Tom Banton at the moment but I look at myself, Matt Lamb, Ed Pollock and our overseas James Psarakis and we've not been firing at the moment. There's no use moaning or whinging about it We need to start scoring runs again and get back the confidence that brings."