Basement rivals Tring won, which was bad news, and the next two games - both away - see us travel to Tring and CS Rugby 1863, who they defeated at the weekend.

Out on the pitch we were roughed up on the scoreboard but also on the field of battle where we got little protection from the referee.

'We had three or four facial injuries off the back of incidents.

'But we did not react and get involved. I was proud of my boys today at the way they stuck at it,' said our coach afterwards.

The game had a number of ugly moments, but none worse than the 10th minute off-the-ball clash which saw the visitors' bearded No. 8 Sam McKinney pin Tom Ceillam to the ground with both hands around his neck having seemingly already kneed the Guernsey hooker in the head.

Play continued while all this was happening and, remarkably, McKinney got away scot free.

Before half-time the same two players were at grips with one another again and this time the match official chose to yellow card both.

Encouragingly, Guernsey had a lot of the ball, particularly after half-time with the breeze at their backs, but the men in black shirts were impressively defiant when it seemed the home side must surely score.

To make matters worse, the Irish were helped on their way by some poor handling and passing by the home backs who, the captain Blair Campbell a notable exception, did not have the best of afternoons.

Via Chris Browne the Wild Geese pushed over for their first try just six minutes in and the impressive stand-off Liam Prescott kicked the extras, which he did all afternoon.

But Guernsey were level at 7-7 after 15 minutes. Jason Batiste - still nursing an ear injury but bravely playing on - scored under the posts after a fine break by Blair Campbell, who had moved to scrum half for this game with Glen Walters moving out to 10.

Sam Whitehead converted and an initially subdued Garenne Stand came to life.

By the half-hour Simi Sawene had been introduced but he had yet to break sweat when centre Seb Rodwell darted over at the end of a well-worked move.

Then, despite a valiant chase by our sprightly veteran winger Jim Elliott, the speedy John Davetanivalu ran half the length of the touchline to score a third and, with Prescott kicking impressively from the touchline, the Wild Geese led 21-7 at the break.

We desperately needed an early second half score to give them the belief of a turnaround, but for all the territory and physical dominance by the pack, they just could not register in an unbroken 10-min. spell in he opposition 22 and much of it inside the five-metre line.

Then to break local hearts, Prescott stretched the lead via a penalty and Glen Walters threw away possession to hand Jordan Gott a third London Irish try which was converted for a 31-7 lead.

Our huge efforts were finally rewarded late on by close-range tries from Matt Thomas and the captain, and if you listened to the crowd Guernsey would have had another courtesy of winger Jim Elliott.

That was scrubbed out by the London Irish touch-judge - a reserve player - adjudicating that Elliott had stepped on the line.

That was another reason for Reynolds to be unhappy at the final whistle when he refrained from praising the opposition.

'We'd didn't run our systems today and that's why it was easy for them to defend.'

TEAMS

Guernsey Craine, Ceillam, L. Batiste, Hillier, Merrien, Gardner, Martin, Thomas; Campbell, Walters, Elliott, J. Batiste, Hema, Brown, Whitehead.

Replacements: Sawene, Sharrott, Taylor.

London Irish Wild Geese Cronin, Ruddock, Fraher, Love, Moore, Rowlands, Browne, McKinney; Barker, Prescott, Carlisle, Rodwell, Kitching, Davetanivalu, Gott.

Replacements: Connor, Rodgers, Eastham.