National Two South

Lydney 20

Clifton 31

SKIPPER Jim McMahon fears Lydney are being sucked into a relegation battle.

The Severnsiders are now only eight points clear of struggling Barnes and Dings Crusaders – teams they still have to play.

Out of sorts Lydney have not won since November 5 and they've only won once at Regentsholme all season.

"We need at least two more wins but at the moment it's hard to see where they are coming from," admitted McMahon.

"We just weren't up to scratch against Clifton, it was very disappointing.

"We let in four very soft tries and we can't afford to keep doing that.

"Clifton were a big physical side but they didn't have lots of pace and weren't particularly good."

Prop Nick Stoneman was sent off for a high tackle five minutes from the end of another bleak afternoon for Lydney fans.

Clifton had two players sin-binned and gave away lots of penalties, but Lydney could not take advantage of a penalty count firmly in their favour.

Clifton opened the scoring on six minutes with a Gareth Knox try from a 5m line-out.

More poor defending allowed Sam Smith to escape from his own 22 for a breakaway try.

Josh Hannam chased down a Tony Wicks kick to score a try for Lydney, but Smith grabbed his second touchdown for the visitors just past the half-hour mark.

Despite having Darren Barry sin-binned for a high tackle on Lakabuka, Clifton forged ahead with a fourth try from Matt Britton, who should not have been allowed to walk-in down the blindside.

Josh Hannam and Matt Taylor raised Lydney's hopes with tries, but Clifton remained on top with a hat-trick score from Sam Smith.

Clifton's spoiling tactics led to Mike Davies being sin-binned, but Stoneman saw red as frustrations boiled over.

McMahon said: "Our problems are in the backs.

"We've lost the likes of Chris Holder, Brett Turner and Danny Chiu and I think we had about eight fit backs in the whole club on Saturday."

Lydney go to Redruth this week and Craig Jones should be available.

However, another setback for the club is the loss of prop Leigh Green, who has joined rivals Barnes.

Lydney: Will Kane, Josh Hannam, Alan Bryan, Ross Webb, Tai Lakabuka, Tony Wicks (Josh Innes 62), Matt Williams (Luke Kell 75), Nick Stoneman, Ben Lewis, Nick Selway (Steve Price 62), James Bashford (Ben Taylor 65), Jim McMahon (capt), Matt Taylor, Will Jones, Paul Scott (Dave Emery 48).