Old Elthamians entertain Chinnor at the Queen Mary ground this Saturday (kick off 2pm), in a game director of rugby Gavin Lach describes as ‘a need to win ’.

After seeing their five-match unbeaten run brought to a disappointing end by a last second penalty try at Bishop’s Stortford last Saturday, the visit of Chinnor takes on even greater importance as the club try to stay in touch with the leading sides in National Two South.

“I don’t think it’s over-playing it to say it’s a need to win game,” said Lach. “If you look at Saturday’s match and the games we’ve got after it in the run-up to Christmas, they are as tough as they come: Chinnor, then a long trip to Redruth, then a home match with league leaders Old Albanian who are on fire at the moment, then a massive local derby at Canterbury. If we are not on our game, we could head into the new year on a four-match losing run.

“It’s crucial that we go into the second half of the campaign still in touch with the teams at the top. This league is so tight that every side will drop points during the course of the season, and we need to be able to capitalise on that.

"We always knew that this winning run would come to an end at some point. But it’s how we react to it that’s crucial, and we need to bounce back with a good performance against Chinnor.”

But OEs' DoR is well aware of the threat, the Oxfordshire club pose. “They are second from bottom in the table at the moment but that is a false position,” he said, “because if you look at their results in the last month, in the games they’ve lost it’s been really close. They only went down by two points at Taunton, and last Saturday they beat Clifton, 31-17. So there is too much quality in their squad for them to be near the bottom.”

Chinnor head coach Matt Williams has moved quickly to bolster his squad as they climb away from the bottom, bringing in a trio of Cornish Pirates players on loan, prop Jay Tyack, fly-half Kieran Goss and centre Alex Dancer, as well as former Loughborough Students prop Samuel Fisher who trained with Elthamians in pre-season last year before getting injured and moving on to Exmouth.

Lach believes the injection of new faces makes them a dangerous proposition on Saturday. “The reports I’ve had from the Clifton game, tell me their new players made a big difference to the side, especially the fly-half,” he said. “And they’ve got quality players already there like Junior Fatialofa, who we know all about, and the ex-Gloucester centre Jack Adams. So we are under no illusions, it’s going to be a massively tough game, whoever they put out.

“But we’ve got an excellent record at the Queen Mary ground, we are unbeaten there this season, and we are also an extremely fit side, so it should be another cracking game for supporters.

As long as it doesn’t go down to the final play of the game again for the fourth week in a row - I don’t think my heart could stand it!”