The Raiders were caught cold by a strong start from Hertford and never quite recovered. In fact, it was one of the most disappointing games in front of the Garenne Stand in a long time and very little went right from start to finish.

Perhaps the only bright spot was the return to the fray of Malcolm Barnes who reminded everyone of his brilliance with ball in hand and vision after he came on after the break for an injured Luke Sayer.

The game was just seven minutes old when Hertford romped over for their second try and from 14-0 down there was already the proverbial mountain to climb.

A catch and drive move from a line-out set up Tom Ceillam to narrow the deficit with a converted score, but to sum up Raiders' day, no sooner had they been rewarded for another 10 minutes of determined pushing for a second try via the catch and drive route in front of the High Performance Gym, during which Hertford lost two players to the sin-bin, they conceded on the verge of half-time.

Barely had the celebrations for Jason Batiste's score in the corner died down, that 13-man Hertford had the last laugh of the half with a 40-yard unchallenged dash for the line from the electric Ben Creasey providing another five points, quickly to be added to by Sean Taylor's conversion.

So instead of chewing on the half-time oranges at 12-17 down with the prospect of starting the second half with a two-man advantage, Raiders were 12-24 adrift and struggling, and it didn’t get better either.

When Owen Thomas kicked for the corner to start the second half with another promising catch and drive situation looming against the depleted opponents, we messed up and soon after Creasey was racing away again to score the try which would finally kill us off in minds, if not on the scoreboard.

Later on Adam Nixon wriggled through to score a consolation, but Thomas missed the conversion.
Hertford, who had former Guernsey Siam Cup man Paul Allen in charge, showed themselves to be a very strong side and of a level Raiders need to aspire to.

With Wimbledon beating Amersham & Chiltern, Tonbridge Juddian winning at Colchester and Westcombe Park hammering Dorking, Raiders ended a day that promised possibly top spot by sliding down to fifth in the table.