REDDITCH Cricket Club will be keeping a keen eye on Aston Villa's return play-off leg with Middlesbrough this week.

The Bromsgrove Road side believe Villa's first leg with Middlesbrough cost them between 15 to 16 players last Saturday.

But Redditch officials refused to use Villa's play-off game as an excuse for their eight wicket defeat to Stourbridge in Birmingham League Division Three.

Redditch were removed for a modest 149 all out in the 46th over and then proved unable to prevent Stourbridge from knocking off the required runs to reach 153 for two in just 37 overs.

Spokesman Gary Fisher said: "It was a very good toss to win, but that said, Stourbridge played extremely well.

"Rizwan Chaundhry was going particularly well on 31 when he was out to a brilliant catch behind from Stourbridge wicketkeeper Maverick Perry.

"In fact Perry pulled off three great catches and then the experienced Harshad Patel played the anchor role extremely well to see Stourbridge home with a well-timed 58 not out".

"Clearly the Villa game being on Saturday didn't help and had an impact on all of our sides across the board.

"Just for good measure, we also lost Ollie Mason - because he's a Coventry City supporter.

"It's been a difficult start to the season as some of our players have yet to hit the ground running.

"We're still missing skipper Russell Southwick through work commitments, so opening bowler Waqas Ali has stepped in to take charge.

"We've also got an overseas player this season in Australian wicketkeeper Tim Fitch.

"He's already making his presence felt and is a great influence on the pitch, geeing-up the other players, but he's still finding his feet.

"Thankfully he scored 70 for the Sunday side and will get better as the wickets start to improve.

"Although we haven't started too well, everyone remains very buoyant and I feel it will only take one positive result to get us going."

Redditch look to get off the mark this week when they travel to Handsworth.