Lowestoft and Yarmouth travelled to the outskirts of London for their first game of the new year and came up against an in-form Enfield side brimming with confidence.

Despite a rousing performance for 60 minutes, when they led by a single point, the game turned away from L&Y – not for the first time this season – when a clear try was disallowed. They then lost concentration and their captain Marc Thomas to the sinbin within seconds, and with him the game.

The visitors started well after their Christmas break only to go behind when powerful Enfield winger Tan Mbono squeezed into the corner for a five-point lead.

L&Y hit back straight away with the midfield of Scott Nelson, Dave Tiueti and Steve Adams all making ground and good support forcing a breakdown offence which Chapman converted. Within minutes, Chapman doubled his tally with a 40m penalty for a similar offence and L&Y took a narrow lead that they held until the break.

The second period began with L&Y withholding an Enfield attack and then making ground up to the home 22 via Nelson's accurate kicking. The L&Y forwards rumbled infield towards the posts where they forced a blatant infringement and the Enfield flanker was sent to the sideline. Thomas opted for the scrum and his forwards battled to the line, with Proctor arrowing his way over by the posts. However the referee was unsighted and disallowed the score.

Enfield promptly forced a penalty and their fullback took them ahead by two points. From the restart, an outside break from Mbono was stopped by James Gee and Dan Boardley but Thomas was caught off his feet and sent to the bin. Enfield went for the jugular and from the next line-out their prop managed to dive through for their second try.

L&Y kept battling and debutant Wayne Beer did well to catch a long kick but he was tackled and from the turn-over and kick the home No 8 just beat Adams to the touchdown thanks to an unlucky bounce.

Then a loose pass from Chapman bounced beyond Nelson and Enfield scooped it up and finished off the match with a fourth unconverted score in the corner.