Whitchurch hope to be boosted by the return of influential centre Mike Gardiner for Saturday’s trip to Stratford in rugby’s Midlands One West.
Gardiner was much missed as the Reds lost their proud 100 per cent record on home soil this season after being edged out narrowly 23-22 by leaders Burton in a thriller last weekend.
But he is on course to have recovered from a bruised thumb sustained in the 59-0 hammering of Cheltenham North nearly a fortnight ago.
However, it’s not all good news for the Edgeley Park men as they are likely to be without injury-plagued captain Chris Hares after the luckless scrum half was forced off with a knee injury towards the end of the first half last weekend.
The Reds had been bidding to make it a perfect 10 successive home wins this term but the table-toppers from Staffordshire dug in to become the first side to leave north Shropshire with maximum points.
“It was a good, hard fought, top of the table clash,” said Whitchurch president John Gregory. “Both sides defended very well in a bit of a ding-dong battle, but they finally just had the edge on us.”
Whitchurch led 10-8 at the halfway stage but Burton turned the tables in the second half to take the spoils. The result strengthened their position at the summit but leaves the Reds, five points behind them, with it all to do to reel them in.
Not that Whitchurch, in third spot, will be giving up on anything just yet with seven league games still remaining, four of which are at Edgeley Park.
Burton edged into an early 8-0 lead with a penalty from captain Tom Bartram added to by winger Lewis Brooks.
But the Reds recovered to lead by the interval with Danny Nicholas converting a penalty try and then landing a penalty to give Ginger Wills’ men something to hold onto.
It looked even better when a try in the corner from Henry Hockenhall extended their advantage to 15-8, but Burton then rallied and tries from outside half Ian Gilmore, converted by Bartram, and Lawrence Batty saw the visitors move 23-15 clear.
No 8 Richard Baxter went over from a five-metre scrum five minutes from time to set up a grandstand finish but Burton held on.
By Stuart Dunn