CRAIG Burgess has called for more leadership from his players after Amersham & Chiltern were beaten for the second weekend running.

They lost 24-15 at home to Bracknell so slip further down the National League 3 South table after beginning the campaign so brightly with two bonus point wins.

Head coach Burgess said: “I’m a big believer that the players are the ones on the pitch and it’s up to them to make decisions in different game situations.

“I don’t want to dictate too much from the sidelines.

“We’ve got three or four patterns – one is expansive, one is tight – and I want my players to decide which is suitable during games.

“Bracknell are a very disciplined side. They came with a game plan and executed it well, but we lacked a bit of clarity.

“We didn’t see how they were defending and try to change things. It was a case of keep banging our heads against the wall and nothing changes – we’re just lacking a bit of leadership from key players.”

Matt Gilbert scored the only try of the first half, but four Bracknell penalties gave them a 12-8 interval lead. The visitors then pulled away with two tries of their own, making it 24-8 before Ross Bugden’s late score.

Burgess said: “Two weeks ago we were sitting pretty at the top and in quite a buoyant mood.

“But we’ve come up against two good teams who have been at this level a long time and know what it takes to win.

“It’s not all doom and gloom, but we have under-performed in the last two weeks and we need to see an improvement now.”

Amersham go to Brixham on Saturday.