Wrexham coach Alan Jenkins has challenged his depleted Wrexham squad to bounce back from their first defeat of the campaign.

The club's impressive four-game winning streak in Division Two North was halted by a 20-14 home defeat to mid-Wales side Cobra last weekend.

A poor first half showing saw the hosts struggle to overturn a 20-point half-time deficit with Jenkins now calling for improvements in today's away clash with Welshpool.

He said: "Last week was disappointing not just for the loss but the fact we picked up another three or four injuries, which will limit our selection options for the Welshpool game.

"We'll be looking to get back to the levels we performed at in the first four games where our defence and tackling was very good and we looked much tighter.

"Against COBRA we missed too many tackles and lacked the aggression of the previous games.

"The players were honest with themselves and know they could have done better and are looking to make amends this weekend.

"Both of our second rows, Jack Harrison and Chris Burgoyne will be missing this weekend as well as our number 8 Troy Roberts.

"The three of them have played all the games so far and will be a big loss for us.

"We'll have the experience of Rob Moore, a former Captain, coming back into the squad as well as Jay Andrews who always gives us a bit of physicality but the injuries are stretching the squad a bit.

WREXHAM fell to their first defeat of the North Wales League Division Two season as they lost 20-14 to COBRA, writes JACK HARRISON.

The weather played a huge part in the game, with the wind giving huge advantages to the teams in either half.

Two penalties from Will Worthington edged the visitors ahead in a scrappy opening quarter.

The first try of the afternoon came from COBRA number eight Jack Jewkes, who managed to break a tackle and slide over for a converted score.

Jewkes got his second just before the break and the conversion from Worthington made the score 20-0 to the visitors at half time.

With the wind now in favour of the hosts, they looked to claw there way back into the game.

After a period of sustained pressure, Christian Burgoyne managed to edge over from close range, with the conversion from Sam Rogers.

Winger Bailey Rae, was left aggrieved has he had two tries disallowed although Wrexham did get a second score late on through Owen Weston who touched down in the corner, Rogers converted with a fine kick.

Head Coach Alan Jenkins said: “We knew what the weather was going to be like and tried to plan for that.

Elsewhere in the division Newtown won 20-10 at Bangor, Dolgellau edged out Welshpool 24-21, Rhyl came away as 14-10 victors at Colwyn Bay and Nant Conwy triumphed 36-27 at Abergele.

Llandudno went top of Division One after beating Nant Conwy 18-14, Bro Ffestiniog won 34-17 at Mold, Pwhelli put Ruthin to the sword winning 43-7, Bala won 22-14 at Llangefni and Caernarfon edged Bethesda 13-10.

Shotton Steel climbed to third in the Division Three table with a 20-10 derby win at neighbours Flint.

Converted tries from Andy Hearns and Steve Ellson were decisive for the visitors, with Ellson also adding two penalties to their tally.

Steelmen coach Dave Connolly said: “Overall it was a very pleasing performance. I thought we looked structured throughout the first half and we really nullified their attacking threats.

“We shackled them really well and I felt we took our chances when it mattered, even if we lost our way a little bit in the second half of the game.”

Mold seconds edged out Rhos 20-15 with both sides struggling in fierce winds and driving rain. Denbigh seconds beat Benllech 38-7, while Pwllheli seconds won 34-13 at Llangefni seconds.

In the seconds league, Ruthin beat Bala 69-3, Caernarfon won 42-12 at Rhyl and Llandudno beat Flint 75-7.

In the North East Wales youth league, Colwyn Bay beat Ruthin 20-12 and COBRA beat Wrexham 21-17.