AFTER he watched Bromsgrove throw away a lead and succumb to a Sutton fight back, Dan Protherough wants his players to gain a winning mentality.

With ten minutes to go against Sutton Coldfield, the Boars looked on the verge of a confidence-boosting first away win in the National Division Three Midlands.

But their hopes were dashed as the Birmingham-based side battled from 17-8 down to win 23-20 with an injury- time penalty.

It was a cruel blow for the young Bromsgrove side, who have won only one league game away from Finstall Park in the last 12 months.

Despite defeat, Bromsgrove earned a well-deserved bonus point.

Head coach Protherough said: “We have to learn a winning mentality and it’s not something we can do straight away.

“We probably had between 60 and 70 per cent in terms of possession, but it was a case of not taking our chances. If we had done so we could have scored 30 points or even more.”

Fly-half Richard Mahony continued his good form, kicking the majority of the points while, Tom Hunt, scored Bromsgrove’s only try.

Protherough said: “There were lots of positives to our performance. Sutton finished second last season and we came very close to beating them.”

Bromsgrove, who have five points, have two winnable games coming up.

They go to bottom of the table Burton on Saturday (3pm ko) and then follow that up a week later at home to local rivals Dudley Kingswinford.

Dave Hughes (hip) looks set to miss the Burton clash.