Yesterday Havant welcomed unbeaten Dorking to the Lane. The crowd was swelled to over 400 with the VP lunch and a noisy contingent from Dorking. The good-natured banter made for a vociferous crowd with the rattles of the faithful prominent throughout.

Just two changes were made to the team from last week's close encounter with league leaders Wimbledon. Armandus Morgan coming back at tighthead prop, pushing Tom Blackburn down to the bench, and Wayne Dugan coming in for the injured Joe Moore at center.

The game kicked off with Dorking making all the running in the first 30 minutes producing three tries with their fast-paced backline causing our usually tough defence all sorts of problems.

With the score at 0-17 in favour of the visitors, a shell shocked Havant stood behind the posts with harsh words being said. They came out fighting in true 'Hav' spirit.

A sublime lineout involving hooker Jerome Trail and lock Harrison Young found Jerome Trail in yards of space to dot down in the corner with the Dorking defence static, the conversion was missed making the score 5-17.

Four minutes later Scott Morris coming off the wing on a beautiful line found the gap in the Dorking defence to dot down under the posts which was converted by Jacob Knight bringing the score to 12-17.
The ref blew his whistle with Havant again putting pressure on the creaking Dorking defence... a breathless first half.

Half-time Havant 12 Dorking 17

Jacob Knight got the 2nd period underway and again Havant was on the front foot not giving Dorking time to set up their moves. Dorking was quite happy to defend their 10-meter line until 67 minutes when another piece of clever rugby saw captain Joel Knight dive over for Havant's third try of the day. Duly converted by Jacob Knight giving Havant the lead for the first time in the match at 19-17.

The noise from the crowd was electric but give Dorking their due they made some noise too.

Scott Morris was almost in again with another powerful run but was stopped just short of the line.

With time on the clock running out Dorking won another penalty just inside the Havant 10-meter line which was knocked over to give them the lead 19-20.

In time added on by the referee, Havant had three opportunities from penalties all missed with the one by Jacob Knight which would have been the game-winning points just shaving the left upright. Jacob's face said it all as the referee blew his whistle and Dorking celebrated on and off the field.

Full-time Havant 19 Dorking 20

Will Knight's thoughts
"Well done to Dorking they came at us for the first 20 minutes and were a real handful"
"But the response from the boys was fantastic - we dominated the last 10 minutes of the first half and most of the second half. We scored some good tries and looked very threatening"
"The end of the game was disappointing, I felt we had done enough to deserve the win but it wasn't to be"
"We have played the top two teams in the last two games and lost by a total of three points. We are competitive but we want to be winning. "What is encouraging is we are strengthing the squad all the time and there is a lot of improvement to come"