Ashford coach Gregor Dougall believes his young side took another step forward in their rugby development last week despite losing 39-12 at home to top-four side Sevenoaks.

Dougall hopes to see his side return to winning ways at Crowborough on Saturday, following three successive London South East 2 defeats, with the East Sussex side one place and four points ahead of ninth-placed Ashford.

He has always maintained promotion to the highest level ever in the club’s history this season, has been a learning curve and still took plenty of positives out of last weekend’s loss

He said: “Bizarrely (despite losing), I was delighted with the performance but disappointed with the result.

“Our defence was fantastic for most of the game, against the biggest side in the league and I felt that we took another step forward in our defensive organisation and tackling technique.

"I am delighted that despite playing against good defences, we are still creating chances. All we need to do now is to work on precision and composure.”