Portsmouth suffer another promotion blow … Gosport & Fareham ease relegation fears with win

They suffered a 36-26 defeat - their fifth London 3 South West loss in six matches after lifting the curtain on the season with four straight victories.

This is Portsmouth’s third season following relegation from London 2 SW, and in both 2017/18 and 2018/19 they finished third - one place outside the promotion places.

But their latest setback - against a Warlingham side who also beat them twice last term - has dumped them down to fifth place.

They trail second placed Old Triffinians by 12 points and are now 15 points adrift of leaders Reeds Weybridge, who have won all nine of their league games so far.

Early in the second half Portsmouth trailed 36-5, Dan Sargent scoring their first half try

In a late flourish, Mark Ovens, Connor Charlton and Noah Cannon added further tries to give the final score a bit more respectability.

Portsmouth don’t have a game next weekend following US Portsmouth’s recent withdrawal from the league.

At the other end of the table, Gosport & Fareham gave their survival hopes a boost with a 21-15 home win against rock bottom Effingham & Leatherhead

Tries from Kieran Darrington, Aiden Price and Mark Nixon helped Gosport record only a second league win in nine attempts.

Dominic Holling completed the success by kicking two penalties.

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