Darren Bellingham scored the winning try for Guernsey

Guernsey Rugby Club came out 13-10 winners in a closely-fought top-of-the-table clash with Guildford at Footes Lane on Saturday.

The island side were 6-0 up at half-time through two successful penalty kicks from Nick Barton.

After the restart that lead was halved by a penalty and Guildford then went 10-6 up with a try and conversion.

Guernsey came back strong and a Darren Bellingham try and a Nick Merrien conversion secured a three-point win.

That small lead set-up a tense end to the game, as the visitors piled the pressure on for the remaining 10 minutes as Guernsey fiercely defended their try line.

Both sides successfully converted every kick they had

Guernsey coach Jordan Reynolds said: "It's great to get the win and it gave the crowd a bit of a spectacle.

"We had to win that game, if we'd lost it we could have been looking at being third and missing out even on promotion play-offs.

"Winning that game is perfect and that drops them maybe out of the race now and it becomes between us and Trojans."

Guildford coach Aiden Turns added: "I'm a little disappointed, I thought we held our own and it was a really, really good match and we possibly could have snuck it in the end.

"Unless Guernsey have a massive slip-up, I very much doubt we'll be gunning for the top spot, as it's pretty mathematically impossible now, so we'll have to look to go through on the play-offs."

Before the game Guernsey were three points ahead of Guildford and five in front of Trojans at the top of London Two South West.

With two fixtures left, away to Bognor and hosting Trojans, the title league winners and automatic promotion to London One South may come down to that last game on 9 April.

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