BRACKNELL 22, DISS 15: Diss let a half-time advantage slip as they suffered another away defeat in National 3 London and South East.

Diss travelled to Bracknell in better spirits after their performance against league leaders Barnes the previous week, when they outplayed their opponents for much of the game.

Again there were changes to the side, with Deaglan Hall being replaced by his brother Fraser, Andy Horne returning at No 8 and Craig Burroughs coming back on the bench.

Immediately from the kick-off Diss knocked on and from the resulting scrum the ball went across the field and back, stretching the Diss defence and allowing Bracknell's No 8 to score out wide.

From then on Diss dominated the first half and on 13 minutes No 10 Zac Seward broke through the defence and offloaded to Warren Wilby, who raced clear to score under the posts, Chris Beaird converting.

Pressure again told in the 20th minute when Beaird scored with a penalty, and again in the 27th minute, when a series of drives by the pack led to a four man overlap.

Captain Matt Richards made one more drive to score but unfortunately his try was not converted and the visitors had to be content with a 15-8 advantage at the interval.

In the second half the home side piled on the pressure but the defence of the whole Diss team was immense and kept out wave after wave of attacks.

Pressure eventually told when Andy Horne was sent to the bench for 10 minutes for deliberately dropping the maul, and during that spell the home side scored two converted tries to move back into the lead.

Diss almost scored in the last few minutes but the defensive effort they had made left them just short of the power needed to get over the try line and Brackell won by a seven-point margin.

This was again an encouraging team effort, especially in defence, and it is frustrating for the whole squad that their efforts are not yet producing the results they deserve.

Diss have lost 10 of their 11 games and have just 10 points to show for their efforts to lie joint bottom of the table with Norfolk neighbours North Walsham.

Next week sees the visit of Tring, who are only two places above Diss in the league, so this is a match that the coaching staff are targeting.