"They are a good set of players and they do not want to let themselves down and by the same token we are flying the flag for Birmingham rugby again as the best semi-professional side in the country," Maynard told local press.

"The league is just shaping up at the moment. Orrell with certainly take a few scalps this year. They are a good side.

"They had three signings from Sale last week and one lad, flanker John Carter, scored two tries against us.

"Our set-pieces are quite tidy now but we just have to build our phase play around them. We usually find if we can get to five phases then one of two things happen, the

opposition concede a penalty of we score.

"On Sunday we got pulled into their kind of game which is a 'loose throw it about and get stuck in' game but had we played in the back third of the park which we planned to do from the start and driven a few of our set pieces, staying strong with our bigger forwards, it would have made it a much easier afternoon for us."

October looks set to be a tough month of national division one fixtures where the Bees will have to be sharper if they are to come away with a win. This weekend the Bees will be back at home playing Otley, who have won three of their four games, then on the road to current fifth place Bristol, unbeaten Plymouth who are second place with only two points difference and away to Rotherham who despite have played one game less than the rest of the division due to their fixture against Bedford being postponed are forth place and are also unbeaten. Despite never beating Rotherham before, Phil Maynard will still be up for the challenge to change this. "Rotherham are not the force they used to be but that said they still have 12 or 13 players who were with them in the Premier-ship last season,"

As well as the National Division One fixtures the Bees will enter the Powergen Cup in the third round where they have been drawn to play away to either Nuneaton or Doncaster. Both team will be keen to do well in the fixture, especially as both teams have ex Bees players in - Mike Brookes joined Doncaster and Steve Evans, Pete Glackin, Ricky Hyslop and Jason Minshull all joined Nuneaton after having played for the Bees.

"This is what we have worked for over the last three months," Said Maynard "We have an enormous test this month. "We can put more structure into our game and I think that is what we are going to work on over the coming weeks. It is difficult to get the blood up against sides you know you should beat.

We are really going to find out what we are made of.

"It may be difficult to get the hairs on your neck standing up for some of our early fixtures but that won't be a problem for the next month.

"There will be no shortage of motivation for us now. Physically, tactically, mentally, we have to be up for it. The next few weeks are absolutely crucial."

"It has been getting increasingly difficult to win games but I am not surprised we have done so because we have got some very good players here and more strength in depth than before.

"If last year we had lost players like Mike Davies, Mark Woodrow, Dave Knight, Gavin Pfister, Ed Orgee, Terry Sigley and Dan Zaltzman we would have been in serious trouble. But the players we have in our squad now make us significantly stronger."