Guernsey 6-9 London Cornish

The loss saw Guernsey drop from third to fourth

Guernsey suffered a setback in their promotion hopes as they went down 9-6 at home to London Cornish on Saturday.

The visitors left with two valuable points in London Two South West and with them leap-frogged over the Sarnians into third place in the table.

Guernsey did have their chances missing a penalty late on for a share of the spoils in rainy and windy conditions.

Captain Simon Sharrott said his side had been a little too hospitable towards the visitors.

We just hit everything and made all our tackles and I thought that told in the end

Nick Taylor

He said: "It's disappointing but that's rugby at the end of the day. If you give the kicker too many opportunities in the red zone and they're going to come away with the nine points that they did today.

"We just gave them too many opportunities, too many penalties unfortunately. They never looked like coming our try line which was good, so we'll take comfort from that.

"We rallied well at half time and I thought we came out well but obviously the mountain was too steep to climb."

London Cornish's Nick Taylor said: "Superb win, really enjoyed it. Horrible conditions but it was a top performance from the lads. Not the best ever game you'll see but it was all about spirit today so we did well.

"To be honest I think we're evenly matched sides, Guernsey tried to throw the ball around a bit and we kept it a bit tighter kicked the corners.

"I thought our defence won us the game because they probably had more possession than us but we just hit everything and made all our tackles and I thought that told in the end."

Tottonians lead the league with 14 points, while Guildford sit ahead of London Cornish on points difference with both on 12 points.

Points difference is also all that separates Guernsey in fourth from London Irish Amateur and Weybridge Vandals, as all are on 10 points after nine games.

Taylor said: "It sets us up now and we should be able to push for promotion."