London II North East

Beccles 11 Old Streetonians 6

Street had another one of their one match winning streaks broken on Saturday, after an inept performance in deepest East Anglia.

Street only got going in the final 10 minutes, but by then the damage had been done and the comeback was too late.

Losing to the bottom of the league is not the way to climb away from the relegation zone.

On a horribly muddy pitch, Street started well, but a couple of dropped balls in the centres, as the approached the Beccles 22, allowed the home side to clear.

Then, just as they had been warned not to do, a series of penalties allowed Beccles to rumble close to the Street line.

From a close lineout, the pressure eventually told, and the Beccles prop rolled over the line to score for 5-0.

Two more penalties were conceded, as Street continued to infringe in their own half, allowed Beccles to take an 11-0 lead into the half time break.

Street began the second half strongly, but struggled to maintain their momentum.

They could not generate the continuity, by a mixture of curious refereeing decisions and their own inability to recycle the ball quickly.

The visitors eventually got in striking range in the final stages, and took the kickable points to secure the losing bonus point.

A charge down of a box kick by the impressive Douglas gave Street the chance to steal the game with the last play.

As the ball was moved left, Street ran out of players to exploit the wide open space.

But as Atkinson was tackled and laid the ball back, with support coming quickly, the referee mysteriously called for a knock on, to the wonderment of even the Beccles players.

Beccles duly cleared their lines, to close the gap on Street in the relegation dogfight.

The final decision of the referee left a bad taste in the mouth, but complaints about the official or the awful pitch had a hollow ring.

Old Streetonians: Perkins, Duncan, Mackay, Wollaston (Edwards 75), Fountain, Jones (Essex 60), Roberts, Douglas, Atkinson, McAtominey, Dunn, Perry, Donegan, Atkinson, Barham, Downey.