Elthamians were knocked off the top of National Two South and saw their six-match unbeaten run come to an end in dramatic circumstances at College Meadow last Saturday when a penalty with the last kick of the match gave promotion rivals Bishop’s Stortford a narrow 16-14 victory. This coming after Lach’s men played virtually the entire match with only 14 men following the second minute dismissal of prop Aston Bevans-Royston.

While the OEs boss admits it was a tough defeat to take, he is confident his side have already drawn a line under it ahead of their trip to the Raiders.

“There is no point dwelling on it or feeling sorry for ourselves,” he said. “We’ve looked at the video, discussed it as a group and now it’s done. End of story. Now we need to go to Worthing and win – nothing else will do, it’s as simple as that. There are 12 games left, and so much rugby still to be played so we’ve got to make sure we are in the mix. And the only way to do that is to keep winning.”

After a promising start to the new campaign, Saturday’s opponents Worthing, blighted by an appalling run of injuries, are having a season to forget. After three wins from their opening four games, an alarming run has seen them collect just two victories from 14 league matches, leaving them second from bottom. They are five points adrift of fourth-from-bottom London Wild Geese and safety, and last Saturday they fell to a seventh successive defeat when they lost 53-18 at Cinderford.

However, Lach is adamant the Raiders’ current plight is not a fair reflection of the quality in their side. “There is no way Worthing are a bottom three side,” he said. “Although, we ended up with a pretty convincing victory over them at College Meadow, 37-17, earlier in the season, they caused us plenty of problems for the middle third of that game, especially up front. To be honest, they were one of the sides I’ve been impressed with this season and they have some quality players, especially their back row which was outstanding against us.

“They’ve been hit massively hard by injuries, by all accounts, and we know just how debilitating that can be from our experience last season. They will be desperate to get out of the relegation places and with time running out, every game is a must win for them, so they will come at us all guns blazing on Saturday.

“Games between the two sides have always been close at their place so I’m expecting another tough one tomorrow. We must be switched on and prepared to weather the storm from the very first whistle.”

Worthing head coach Jody Levett admits his side’s current form is a cause for concern but believes his Raiders side have more than enough to pick up some positive results in the coming weeks. He told the Worthing Herald: “We are aware of what a tricky run we face but everyone is full of confidence going into the Old Elthamians clash. They’ve got some great quality but we’re at home and will be looking to get back to winning ways.

“Our fate is still firmly in our own hands and we can turn things around. The minute we have to rely on other results, then it becomes even more of a concern, but at present we know wins in our matches will be enough.”