Old Wimbledonians came away with defeat from a match they should have won in deepest Hampshire on Saturday.

Fordingbridge opened the scoring after six minutes when some limp tackling allowed the home left winger to score a try behind the posts, which was converted.

OWs then produced some inventive play with forwards and backs linking well.

George Attipoe beat his man on the outside with ease but Jamie Crone, linking round from the left wing, could not hold his scoring pass.

Richard Delfino ran well in the open two or three times, but the support for him seemed distant and the pressure could not be maintained.

Forty minutes arrived with Matt Jones's penalty the only reply to the early Fordingbridge try .

However , one careless moment with two tackles being missed by the Old Boys and a good chip and chase in the Fordingbridge centre gave the home side twelve points in first half injury time for a 19-3 half-time advantage.

In the second period the visitors slowly got on top of the home forwards who, towards the end, visibly tired, although the Fordingbridge backs were often still dangerous.

However, the Old Boys were not able to add to their score until on the half-hour mark an excellent run by Paddy Donaghy down the right, injecting some pace to the backs, was stopped 10 yards short of the line.

From the maul following the line-out, Alex Prew drove over the home line for Jones to convert.

A sense of urgency and a possible victory now came into the Wimbledonians thinking and they attacked from every field position and another scoring pass was dropped by a back with the line at his mercy.

Worse than this, some ill-discipline crept into the visitors play and the home team were able to keep clearing their lines to touch.

However, on 40 minutes, Matt Lucas, noticing that the opposing number eight was sin-binned darted round the blind-side for an opportunist try which Jones again converted to keep his 100 per cent match kicking record intact.

Despite some frantic last-minute pressure , including some mazy running from Jason Murphy, OWs were unable to grab victory.

Other than in the final few tense minutes it was noticeable that the Old Boys discipline was greatly improved and little ground was sacrificed by illegal play giving penalties away.