Tom Price clears his lines

SAFFRON Walden head coach Andy Price bemoaned his team’s alarming dip in form and warned that defeat against Old Streetonians on Saturday could leave them in a relegation scrap.

Andy Lancaster and Felix Harris keep possession

Walden, currently eighth in the London 2N table, lost 29-35 at home to ninth-placed Stowmarket at Henham on Saturday.

Although they are still 15 points clear of second-from-bottom Old Streetonians, Price believes that the Rams still need to take two more wins to be sure of survival.

“We’ve dragged ourselves right down into a fight at the bottom of the table and need to give everything to try to avoid relegation,” he told the Reporter.

“We have an opportunity against Old Streetonians to probably make ourselves safe from relegation, but if we lose we’re in a fight we don’t want to be in.

“We really need to get some points on the table, and turn it on for the remainder of the season. If we can manage to scrape together two wins, I think it will make us safe.”

Walden were made to rue poor defending against lowly Stowmarket, despite scoring an early try.

They went into half-time trailing by two points in an evenly-contested first half but were punished by a lapse of concentration that allowed the visitors to cross the line.

Stowmarket upped the pressure early in the second half and built a lead that Walden failed to eat into until they scored two tries in the last 10 minutes.

Price said: “I am very disappointed with the way we played. We only got into our stride with 20 minutes remaining but by then we were chasing the game.

“We started well and scored first, but then they came back at us because the game was pretty open. Our defending let us down and we gave away a silly try in the first half to give them the lead.”

The result and performance was a far cry from the Rams’ early season form, which saw them climb to as high as second in the table after five games.

But six defeats on the bounce has scuppered any hopes of showing real progress on last season’s ninth-pace finish.

“If you asked me at the start of the season if I was happy with the progress, I would’ve said yes. We were in second but since then we’ve struggled and it’s difficult to say whether we’ve improved or not,” admitted Price.

Walden will be hoping for an improved performance at Old Streetonians on Saturday.