Deal and Betteshanger Rugby Club fully justified the faith of their coach, Lee Ambrose, by winning 16-11 in their London 2 South East relegation showdown at Heathfield & Waldron on Saturday.

The Lions coach (pictured) had insisted repeatedly in recent weeks that, if it came down to a last-match "must win" game for his side, he would back them to rise to the challenge.

And that’s exactly what they did with a superb 18-man squad performance in East Sussex which lifted them two places to ninth position in the final table and left Ambrose saying afterwards: "I feel very proud of the players because it’s very hard to win away from home, especially when you are down the bottom and it’s a game you know you’ve got to win.

"But neither (backs’ coach) Jack Browne nor myself ever contemplated losing this game and we never mentioned the possibility of losing in training. I don’t know if it helped but, as far as we were concerned, losing wasn’t an option.

"We played in a very positive way. We didn’t try and spoil the game, we were attacking at every opportunity."