MARLOW RFC’s chances of staying up appear to be all-but over after they lost 47-5 at one of the teams in and around them in the South West 1 East table.

The result leaves Marlow 11 points off the team above them, Buckingham, with a daunting fixture against leaders Oxford Harlequins to come tomorrow.

New coach Richard Kinsey said: “When I took over I said I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep them up, but that’s not what I’m charging myself with doing.

“I want them to start enjoying it again and if that’s in another league then so be it.”

The players got little satisfaction out of Saturday, but Kinsey says their reaction to the heavy defeat was one of the few positives to come out of the day.

He said: “Newbury played reasonably well and we didn’t play well at all.

“Our line speed wasn’t great. It comes down to closing space down and they didn’t see the space, didn’t see what needed to be done and certainly didn’t do it.

“We just seemed to have an off day, but one positive is that they were very disappointed in themselves, they felt they could have done better and were already talking about how they could do better next week.”