JAMES Doherty might not turn 30 until June but maybe the stress of being Wharfedale's head coach is catching up with him after all.

"It was pointed out to me that I have a grey hair on my head, which is not surprising given the job I have at Wharfedale," he laughed.

Doherty was speaking in the wake of their 21-20 defeat at South Leicester which put the visitors back in the highest of the three relegation places in National League Two North.

The Greens led by seven points with nine minutes left, and Doherty said: "We played really well for 30 minutes in the second half."

But oh how he wishes he could have the other ten minutes back.

Doherty said: "We are a different side from what we were eight weeks ago and last Saturday was not a desperate performance but we were naive, ill discipline cost us hugely, our errors cost us hugely and we have to learn how to see games out.

"Maybe we were a little too keen but we just need to concentrate on our own little techniques such as rucking and the bigger picture will look after itself."

They conceded a try to South Leicester club skipper Ricky Aley, who missed the conversion, which meant that the Greens still led by two points, but they then gave away a penalty, which Aley kicked from 40 metres out to win the match.

Doherty added: "There is no lack of effort or application and our set-piece statistics are generally good if a little misleading, but we just have to be a bit smarter.

"I don't believe in unopposed training so we are always putting players in opposed situations in practice, whether that be the second team against the first team, so that we can react to situations better in games.

"What has been eating away at me is that we are not an inexperienced side.

"Yes, Tom Barrett was a late cry-off and we had to include flanker Jack Kitching for his debut off the bench, which meant that we had a 4-1 split on the bench forwards to backs instead of a 3-2 split, but we had three players with over 100 appearances for the first XV and six with over 50 appearances.

"When you work it out, even with Jack involved, the average number of first-team appearances in last Saturday's squad of 20 was 62.

"But I won't be beasting them in training. We need the more experienced players to take the lead and we need to be smarter overall.

"We have lost our last two matches by an aggregate of two points (they were beaten 31-30 at Hinckley on January 7), but I am confident that we will get out of this situation."

On Saturday, the Dalesmen are at home to Luctonians, who won the reverse encounter 34-7 last October.

Doherty said: "It wasn't our best performance of the season, and they are a strong physical side, but I am confident that we will perform on Saturday."

Barrett returns at fly half, with Jamie Guy reverting to centre to partner Tom Davidson.

Harry Bullough switches from centre to full back, while Scott Jordan reverts to the wing from full back, with Josh Prell dropping to the bench.

The pack are unchanged, while Prell replaces Kitching on the bench.

Wharfedale (home to Luctonians): Harry Bullough; Robbie Davidson, Tom Davidson, Jamie Guy, Scott Jordan; Tom Barrett, Phil Woodhead; Joe Altham, Dan Stockdale, Toms Asejevs, Adam Howard, Richard Rhodes, George Hedgley, Josh Burridge (captain), Tom Whyte. Replacements: Jordon Poole, James Huck, Ian Larkin, Jimmy Bullough, Josh Prell.