The Oaks entertain Barton on Saturday in a Midlands 4 East (North) clash looking to bounce back from last week’s heavy 65-3 away loss at Ashby.

The defeat was Oakham’s first loss of Powell’s reign and he is eager for his side to get back on track against a visiting side who have won two of their opening three games.

He said: “Saturday was a rude awakening, but it’s fair to say I’ve been waiting for it to happen.

“We have got a young side and we’re not street-wise or savvy enough yet.

“It was disappointing and we have got to learn from it.

“It is now my job to lift the guys because I want to create a fortress Oakham where we win more games than we lose.”

The Oaks suffered a catalogue of injury woes on Saturday as they were forced to play the final 15 minutes of the match with just 12 men.

Mark Matthews, who started the game despite twisting his ankle in the warm-up, had kicked an early penalty to tie the scores.

But Oakham gifted the home side three tries to take the gloss of an otherwise promising first-half performance.

Powell added: “The final score doesn’t really reflect how well we played in the first half.

“I was really pleased because there was a lot of heart and soul in it.”

Matthews had soldiered on until he was on the receiving end of a short arm tackle in the second period which ended his involvement in the contest.

Three more players - Henbrey, Harries and Corner - were then forced off through injury to leave Ashby to run in a spree of tries in the latter stages and inflict Oakham’s first league defeat of the season.

Thorny, Stimson, Armstrong, Foster and Gant had been unavailable for the match which led to coach Powell fielding a youthful team with an average age of just 22.