Guernsey Raiders 14, Tonbridge Juddians 47

'Poor, pathetic,' were the first two words that sprung to his mind when assessing his side's performance.

He elaborated: 'Look at their tries – terrible. We may as well just play touch football from my point of view.

'That loss today is the most embarrassing in my time being part of the Guernsey set up. I have never seen something like that with such a good team we could select from.'

For a man who wears his heart on his sleeve, it was not a surprising reaction.

But, to put it into context, the Guernsey coach had just watched his side concede 20 unanswered points in the final 15 minutes of a game that they were still in with a shout of winning before that late capitulation.

By that point they had lost two hugely influential figures in fly half Owen Thomas and hooker Tom Ceillam to injury while their main advantage – their dominance in the scrum – had been neutralised by the controversial introduction of uncontested scrums with 20min. remaining.

All this against a side who are now leading the way in National Three London & South-East and arguably favourites in the promotion hunt having strengthened over the summer.

Yes, Raiders were guilty of a slow start that left them playing catch-up and the frustrating problem of missed tackles reared its ugly head once again while some of the decision making left a lot to be desired, but there was still enough to suggest the top-five ambition can be realised.

• More in Monday’s Guernsey Press.