WESTCLIFF’S woes continued with a fourth successive defeat as they were beaten 11-0 by Westcombe Park at the Gables.

Westcliff had been narrowly beaten in their opening three games of the season.

But their director of rugby Rick Compton felt they did not perform to such a high standard against their Kent visitors at the weekend.

“It was a performance that dipped below the levels of our previous home games against Hertford and Tonbridge,” said Compton.

“There will inevitably be times when that happens but it’s always a disappointment when it does.

“We didn’t play as well as we can and we failed to execute properly at key stages of the game when opportunities were created or were handed to us. Some of the credit for that should go to Westcombe Park.

“But we just couldn’t find our game when we needed to.

“It wasn’t a great game and won’t last long in the memory of anyone there, so although we will take lessons from it we will leave it behind and move on,” Compton added.

The opening exchanges of the game were evenly contested but unremarkable and the home side appeared a little flat.

The game was not helped by frequent interruptions and breaks in play, one of which was for tight-head prop Ewan Binneman, who was forced from the field of play for the second successive week.

During his absence, Westcombe Park struck first through a penalty but when a similar opportunity fell to Westcliff it was pushed wide and the visitors held a 3-0 lead they extended with another penalty just before the break.

At the start of the second half, Westcliff missed a second penalty but quality remained in short supply.

Neither side, for all their huffing and puffing and beating of chests, really threatened the opposition line.

As the game approached its conclusion the visitors maintained a lead which they were worth but which remained very slender, and the game could still have gone either way.

However, in the end it was to be the visitors who scored the only try of the afternoon in the game’s last play, as a cross-field kick resulted in them touching down to secure their third victory in four games.

The try also denied Westcliff a fourth consecutive losing bonus point as they slipped down to 12th in the National Three London & SE table.

However, they have a great chance of grabbing their first victory of the season this weekend as they head to bottom-of-the-table Amersham & Chiltern.

The Buckinghamshire team have also yet to triumph this term.

Westcliff: Roskams, Beavis, Dudman, Jones, Merrick, Whiting, Branch, Skidmore, Macintyre, Binneman, Edwards, Jobling, Vandermolen, Marsh, Maloney.

Replacements: Lane, Hopkins & Scoggins.