Canterbury’s misery on the road in National 2 South continued with a 24-11 defeat at Lydney on Saturday.

Their sixth defeat in seven away games this season - the other being a draw - saw the city club return to the bottom four of the table.

The tone was set from the off as the visitors failed to secure the kick-off, and though Lydney knocked-on at the crucial moment in their opening drive, they did take a 3-0 lead through a Tony Wicks penalty, the first of his 14 point personal haul.

Canterbury drew level for the only time with a Tom Best penalty after 15 minutes but were made to pay for errors whenever they got into attacking positions and could not find a way past the speedy Lydney defence, while the city club’s trusty driving maul was not as reliable as usual.

The home side were near faultless in comparison and claimed two first-half tries, the first on the overlap from centre Josh Innes and the second from a catch and drive from lock Dave Bennett after a needless penalty was conceded.

Further ill-discipline allowed Wicks to convert a penalty before the break, adding to a conversion to make it 18-3 at the turnaround.

The visitors did rally after the break, showing increased energy and pushing forward, reducing the deficit with a Best penalty and then adding a try, after Bennett had been sin-binned, flanker Ryan Ward diving over from a catch and drive.

The Best conversion missed, but the gap was closed enough to yield a losing bonus point, however that disappeared before the end with Mason Rosvall binned for the visitors and Wicks converting two late penalties.