INJURED Reading Abbey captain Will Bevan was left frustrated by his side’s start after they suffered a third consecutive Southern Counties North defeat, going down 26-7 at home to second-placed Buckingham on Saturday, writes Richard Ashton.

Abbey found themselves 19-0 down early in the second quarter, and despite dominating large portions of the match – particularly in the second half – they were unable to fight their way back into the contest.

And Bevan – who has been out of action for 10 weeks since injuring his knee in the derby against Reading last November – was left disappointed after taking up a role alongside head coach Fungai Mutepfa on the sidelines.

He told the Chronicle: “It was a frustrating first half and ultimately we paid the price for giving the second-placed side a 19-0 lead headstart.

“Credit to Buckingham, they came out and played some smart territory and we fell off a couple of tackles in the first half. Unfortunately they made us pay for it.

“The missed tackles cost us and it was from kick-returns as well, so one miss is an easy 20 metres for them and then they were very good at finishing off from there.”

Indeed the opening 10 minutes were relatively even, but the visitors went in front when their excellent fly half, Max Nagy, fielded a kick before breaking 30 metres and finding wing Craig Coxon.

He burst down the touchline before cutting in and dotting down, allowing Nagy a straight-forward conversion to make it 7-0.

Not long after, Buckingham doubled their advantage as Jack Lambert-Taylor’s clearance kick narrowly failed to find touch, and Coxon this time made the initial surge before finding Nagy who went over for a second converted score.

Things got worse for Abbey early in the second quarter, when they failed to defend a powerful driving maul, flanker Will Cooper getting the ball down before Nagy struck the left-hand upright as he attempted to add the extras.

Having shipped three tries, Abbey began to compete better, though they were hamstrung by the number of penalties they conceded, Nagy missing two shots at goal before the break to extend the lead.

And Abbey gave themselves a lifeline early in a second half in which they were utterly dominant.

Having butchered a couple of chances while near the Buckingham line, they finally crossed with their opponents down to 14 men – Phil Wright sin-binned for his side’s persistent offending – as Will Woodward barged his way over. Diego de Marcilla Bahsen’s conversion cut the gap to 12 points.

Yet try as they might, the hosts were unable to breach the impressive Buckingham defence again, while also turning down a couple of kicks which might have reduced the deficit.

And they were hit by a late sucker-punch, as following a rare foray into Abbey territory, Buckingham again used their rolling maul to get over, Wright the man to touch down before Nagy landed a superb touchline conversion.

Bevan was pleased with the way his side responded to the difficult opening period, though was left to rue some of the game management on show from the Rose Hill outfit.

He admitted: “In the second half we were camped in their 22 for 30 of the 40 minutes, but we just couldn’t quite get over the line and make it a nervy last five minutes for them.

“Being on the front foot helped us get on the right side of the referee, but there were also some harsh words at half time as well. We fully acknowledged we were a bit naive in how we managed the referee in the first half.

“But we brought the ball back into the midfield, where they were very strong, a little bit too often, and we should have changed the point of attack – maybe a few more out in the backs to see if we could get the wings a bit more involved.

“(On the turned down kicks) We felt they were just on the verge of our kicker’s distance and with the footing, I don’t think we were 100 per cent certain we’d have got them. If they were five metres closer we definitely would have been taking shots for goal, but it’s all hindsight.”

He continued: “We can take the positives out of the second half, though.

"It shows when we are committed to those upfront collisions we can go with anybody in this league.”

Abbey drop to seventh in the table, although they have a run of four games against sides below them in the table, starting this Saturday at home to rock bottom and winless Drifters.

And Bevan (pictured) whose side have been hampered throughout the campaign by injury, concluded: “We can’t use it as an excuse because it’s part of the game, but we’ve had long-term injuries to some key positions which doesn’t help when it comes to consistency and trying to build that team ethos.

“We’ve got to regroup, but we’ve got a few winnable games in our eyes coming up, so we’ve got to build towards a strong end to the season and finish as well as we can.

“We’ve got some really strong areas of competition, and the goal is to develop the squad as best we can, whether that be the younger guys or the more senior guys.

“But we want to put the best team out we can and win games, that’s what’s enjoyable.”