BEACONSFIELD RFC admit their fading title hopes have now gone after they were beaten 31-15 by Chiswick in London 2 North West.

It was third against fourth and Beaconsfield needed the points to remain outsiders for the title after two crucial wins over Christmas.

However, defeat bumped them back to fifth place in the table, more than 20 points adfrift of leaders Twickenham.

Head coach Simon Tattersall said: “They were third, we were fouth. It was a bit of a cup final, almost winner take all.

“We felt if we won on Saturday we’d have a good chance of going unbeaten until the end of the season on the back of that momentum.

“But now we’ve lost we go back to our summer targets. We wanted to finish in the top four and go unbeaten at home.

“That is still very much on and if we do it we’d still class it as a good season.”

Beaconsfield were well in the game at half time on Saturday, trailing 12-7. But three times in the second half they lost the ball in contact and each occasion led to a Chiswick try.

That took the game beyond Beaconsfield, despite a second score from the visitors.

Tattersall said: “There were lots of positives from the game. At times we played some really good rugby but we were second best in a few aspects and our mistakes cost us 21 points.

“You can’t do that and win games of rugby.

“Full credit to Chiswick, they deserved their victory. But we felt we let ourselves down in the contact area.”

Next Saturday Beaconsfield host St Albans with plenty of motivation.

Tattersall said: “They beat us 10-8 at their place but we missed five kicks at goal.

“This fixture has been up in lights since then and now the shackles are off, we can just go out there and play our rugby.”