Havant turn in ‘worst performance of the season’ as they are dumped off top spot in London One South

The visitors managed to claw their way back to 14-13 but couldn't find the all-important extra score to win them the game in the final 10 minutes.

Senior coach Will Knight reckoned it was his side’s poorest display of the campaign so far.

'We just didn't perform,' he rued.

'Attacking wise we never fired and just couldn't get going.

'It was probably our worst performance of the season.

'Chichester didn't play a lot of rugby either and it wasn't a great advert for London One rugby.

'They had a spell in the first half ,when we were down to 14 men, where they scored two converted tries in quick succession.

'In the end we failed to recover from this.

'We dominated the second half and they hardly got into our territory.

'Slowly we reduced their lead but in the closing stages every time we got into a scoring position we made a mistake.'

Havant are still to enjoy a league success at Chichester and last season the west Sussex side recorded a league double.

This time around, the visitors had high hopes after beating Chichester comfortably at Hooks Lane in September.

The initial breakthrough didn't arrive until the 28th minute after Havant had Matt Whitehead yellow carded.

Chichester capitalised on their numerical advantage to score two close-range tries.

'Our defence was superb but after about 20 phases we just run out of bodies,' said Knight.

'We weren't particularly concerned at half-time because we knew that we hadn't played.

'There was a confidence that we could still turn things around.'

Joel Knight knocked over two penalties and eleven minutes from the end Havant grabbed their try.

The ball was thrown to the front of the line-out and hooker Sean Shepherd crossed for the try.

Knight converted and suddenly Havant were within a point.

They proved false hopes, however, as Chichester held out for the win.

Havant will resume their title challenge in January sitting in second, one point behind Westcombe Park.

'This loss is a blip rather than a disaster,' said Knight.

'We are still fairly chipper and feel that we have got ourselves into a good place.

'Nearly all our title rivals have to come to us in the second half of the season.'