Simon Tattersall felt his players paid the price for showing Drifters a lack of respect on Saturday as Beaconsfield went down 25-14 to the side directly below them in the table.

The defeat came with mixed feelings for the coach who is now safe in the knowledge that the club will compete in the Southern Counties North division again next season after Milton Keynes’ and Alchester’s relegation was confirmed.

Tattersall believes his charges had one eye on their upcoming fixtures when they took to the field on Saturday leading to their demise against their tenth place opponents.

He said: “I think a few of our player’s eyes were more focused on Wycombe and Marlow in the next two weeks and they didn’t give Drifters the respect they deserved.

“We made far too many basic errors, we knocked the ball on a lot of the time under no pressure and we got turned over on the floor by quite a good back row. If you don’t have the ball it’s very difficult to score the points.

“It’s disappointing because you’ve got to take each game as it comes and you can’t afford to look too far ahead. I think because we did that our concentration went, we weren’t at the right level of motivation and we were undone by that.”

A bright note for Beaconsfield on an otherwise dreary afternoon was the appearance from the bench of 17-year-old James Finlay, who came on for his first team debut after impressing for the second XV.

With his team now mathematically safe from the threat of relegation Tattersall indicated he would like to blood a few more of the club’s younger players with five games remaining in the season.

The next two of which see Becky pit their wits against table toppers High Wycombe at Oak Lodge Meadow before another local derby away at Marlow, and the coach says his players will be fired up to gain some bragging rights.

“I just hope Saturday is a temporary blip and we come back out firing against Wycombe. It’s a great chance to come back and prove a point against the league leaders who are going really, really well,” he said.

“Certainly on Saturday we’ll be firing on all cylinders and looking forward to trying to test High Wycombe out. We’ve got elements to our game that I think can disrupt Wycombe.”

Fight is a characteristic which Tattersall hopes to see in abundance from his team tomorrow, as his ninth placed side look to pull off a major upset.

He said: “I think they play a simple but effective game plan and that’s served them well at this level. The table doesn’t lie after this many games, and I think we have to go at it with an underdog mentality and try to win all the 50-50s that we lost on Saturday.

“On our patch we believe we can challenge anyone.”