INJURY problems – their own and those of neighbours Leicester Tigers – caught up with Nottingham Rugby as their winning run came to an end at Plymouth.

With Luke Sherriff the latest casualty added to a list that also includes Matt Parr and Ian Nimmo, the Green and Whites were further depleted as Tigers were forced to recall loanees Dan Hemingway, Calum Green, Greig Tonks and Tom Youngs, with Dan Cole also unavailable.

As if their playing resources were not hit badly enough, the game itself saw further injuries to David Jackson, Ben Johnston and Rohaan Nirmalendran – the latter carried off on a stretcher ten minutes from time.

And yet not only did they earn themselves a bonus point, they came agonisingly close to stealing a win at the death.

That said, few would have put money on the Green and Whites coming anywhere near that close after a dreadful first period as Nottingham struggled badly in the set pieces in particular.

Several times they were pushed back off their own scrummage ball, while lineouts were more often than not a lottery.

A couple of Tim Taylor penalties kept them in touch but it was Albion who put their own recent troubles behind them to run in three tries to build up a 17-6 lead by the break.

From the restart the Green and Whites showed greater urgency, and were soon rewarded with a try from Johnston, but Albion soon cancelled out that score as back row man Sean-Michael Stephen crossed for the bonus point try.

Despite those further injuries Nottingham put together their most prolonged spell of pressure to drive over the home line, hooker Greg Sammons getting the try and Taylor converting to bring them to within four points.

But again Albion hit back to cancel out the score as skipper Kieran Hallett broke through and then slotted over the conversion to re-establish the 11-point gap.

Still Nottingham refused to lie down and a crossfield kick from Taylor saw winger Tim Streather win the race to touch down, but with the conversion missed the Green and Whites still needed a converted try to steal it.

With only two wins to to their name this season Albion have had a frustrating time, with too many games lost in the final ten minutes.

And when Streather beat two Albion defenders and headed for the line the heart rates among the home crowd soared, only to be relieved when a defender appeared from nowhere to stop the Nottingham winger with a desperate tackle to prevent the try.

As the Green and Whites camped in the Albion 22 deep in injury time, the nerves among that home crowd were stretched to the limit.

And while those Plymouth supporters may well admit their side had made hard work of the 31-25 win, no-one could argue they did not deserve it.

Given that mounting injury list, how close Nottingham came should be of some consolation, but the more uncomfortable feeling was that injuries could not account for all the individual errors – as disappointed coach Glenn Delaney admitted.

"We weren't good enough," he said. "We didn't apply ourselves and we made a huge amount of errors.

"We didn't get through phases and didn't execute anything. We made big errors at the wrong times."

Nottingham: Jackson; (Marshall) Cobden, Nirmalendran (White), Johnston (Savage), Streather; Taylor, Usasz; Fowkes (Buxton), Sammons (Rostron), Du Plessis (Cook), Raven, Rouse, Hammond, Rowan, Eggleshaw (Baird).

Tries: Johnston, Sammons, Streather. Convs: Taylor (2). Pens: Taylor (2).