Amersham & Chiltern 3, Wallingford 11

If playing badly and winning is the mark of a good side, then Wallingford are destined for great things.

They won this torrid Southern Counties North clash, chiefly because they made fewer errors than battling Amersham.

Wallingford's usually impressive back line stuttered throughout with too many passes going astray, but they did at least defend well, limiting their hosts to the odd sniff at the tryline.

No 8 Ian Jeffrey was the visitors' outstanding player and made more yards in broken field than most of his backs.

But even he was twice guilty of a lack of composure when simply controlling the ball should have led to second-half tries.

Amersham had the wind behind them in the first half as was clearly shown when fly half and captain Dan Kinsey went for a long-range drop goal after just five minutes.

Wallingford struggled to exit their own half for the first 15 minutes with their erratic No 10 Pete Strang repeatedly having to kick clear.

Amersham were clearly fired up as they scrapped for survival, but their efforts were summed up in a few seconds that saw them win a scrum against the head and then immediately knock on.

Wallingford felt hard done by when hooker Tom Hill looked to have broken clear, only to be pulled back for a knock-on.

The breakthrough came on 22 minutes following Jeffrey's marauding run up the middle.

Wallingford's support was good and quick hands from Henry Pooler and Henry Venners created space for Richard Turner to touch down in the right corner.

Strang's conversion hit the bar and Amersham soon replied with a penalty from Kinsey.

Some decent pressure saw Strang handed a penalty in front of the posts on 33 minutes, but he scuffed his kick well wide.

Strang was able to redeem himself with an even simpler penalty four minutes later and with the wind in their favour after the break, you expected at least a couple of tries.

The second half was, however, a comedy of errors, although Wallingford coaches Chris Norrington and Simon Henderson weren't laughing.

Twice Venners misjudged the wind to kick dead from promising positions, but there was much worse to come.

Centre Pete Holton broke three tackles then fumbled with the line at his mercy.

A minute later, Jeffrey knocked on when he only had to recycle the ball for a try.

In one brighter moment, Venners' chip kick caused problems, but Amersham centre Shaun Jarrold had the composure to touch down for a 22.

Wallingford couldn't find any rhythm and they were fortunate to see Kinsey's 64th-minute penalty attempt drift wide.

Another chance went begging on the left wing when Holton couldn't hold a sharp pass from Strang.

Wallingford's lack of creativity was highlighted by a sliced drop goal attempt from Venners on 77 minutes.

But Amersham were stupidly caught off-side at the re-start and Strang slotted the penalty for the visitors' only points of a poor half.

Wallingford: Venners, R Turner, Pooler, Holton, J Collett, Strang, Viljoen, Blaszko (capt), Hill, Broome (M Collett 60), Thorns (M Turner 40), Lewis, Ma Chapman, Mi Chapman, Jeffrey. Not used: Risk.

Referee: S Moir (Devon).

Man-of-the-match: Jeffrey.