SHAWBURY United are approaching a crucial few weeks in their West Midlands Premier Division survival fight, admits boss Dave Richards.

A 2-1 defeat at Cradley Town – Shawbury’s seventh straight defeat in all competitions – has left United three points off the bottom three with most of their relegation rivals enjoying games in hand.

Shawbury host high-flying Wolverhampton Casuals this Saturday before a run of games against three of the bottom four – Dudley Sports, Pershore Town 88 and Pegasus Juniors.

Richards said: “We have some big six-pointers coming up that we need to look to win or we could find ourselves in some serious trouble.

“Myself and (assistant) Stu Lewis have got a lot of faith in the lads but at the moment they are making the same errors each week.”

Shawbury also lost 2-1 to St Martin’s in the Shropshire Premier Cup quarter-finals last week in a game that featured five red cards, three for United.

A bewildered Richards said: “I’ve been involved in football a long time and I’ve never witnessed anything like that – there wasn’t a bad tackle in the game!”