Canterbury slipped to second-bottom of National 2 South after a fourth defeat in five matches this season, going down 22-10 to Bishop’s Stortford at Merton Lane on Saturday.

The city club were undone by some sloppy errors in wet conditions and despite seeing the visitors playing the final 25 minutes with 14 men after a red-card, the hosts could not take advantage and even conceded a second try.

The Essex side’s first try came early-on from centre Sam Winter after full-back Nick Hankin cruised through an inviting gap.

Tom Coleman missed the conversion but slotted three penalties before the break as Canterbury’s ill-discipline again proved costly, with difficulties in the scrum leading to a yellow card for prop Sam Kenny.

It was 14-5 at the interval as the city club took advantage of a penalty on 13 minutes to record a catch-and-drive try, with Tom Sherson touching down.

However handling errors, a ragged lineout and ineffective ball carrying hampered their progress and after the break they saw debutant flanker Ryan Ward to the sin-bin before Coleman kicked the visitors 17-5 ahead.

Visiting prop Sean Edwards was sent-off for a stamp which gave the hosts some impetus and replacement prop Cameron Townley powered over for an unconverted try to reduce the deficit.

Guy Hilton almost created another try when his kick forward was fumbled and only a last-ditch tackle denied Mason Rosvall a score.

However as conditions deteriorated and Canterbury’s error count rose, the visitors made the game safe when the ball was spread wide to wing Mike Gallagher to dash over.

Any chance of a bonus point try for the hosts was spurned when a five-metre scrum drive was ended by another penalty.