Despite the best efforts of captain-for-the-day Tim Pinnock, Surbiton lost 3-2 to Bowdon in their National Premier Division fixture at Sugden Road on Saturday.

For the first time this season the Surrey club were without James Mulcair, their team captain and top scorer with ten goals from 12 games, who was on holiday in his native Australia.

Pinnock was second-top scorer with seven, five of them from his lethal drag flick at penalty corners, but Surbiton managed to force only two all game for him to attempt.

And he scored from both after Bowdon had taken the lead from open play by capitalising on defensive confusion following a Surbiton attacking turnover with a precise reverse stick pass pushed into an empty net by Ibrar Latif in the 22nd minute.

Pinnock equalised from Surbiton's only penalty corner of the half seven minutes later, slamming his running dragflick high against the left-hand stanchion.

Then, just two minutes into the second half, Ben Tibble calmly won a second penalty corner and this time Pinnock dragflicked Surbiton into the lead at shoulder height to the keeper's left.

Ten minutes later, with Surbiton very much in the ascendant, Pinnock hit the right-hand post from a reverse-stick snap open-play shot that would have won the game if it had gone in.

Instead, while the home team failed to force any more penalty corners for their stand-in captain to attempt, Bowdon added another three to the one already forced that half. The first of these, on 50 minutes, saw their captain Stephen Smith equalise from mid-circle in a worked move.

Surbiton then had to survive five minutes reduced to ten men by a yellow-card offence, during the last seconds of which Bowdon were awarded two penalty corners, the second after consultation between the two umpires. They scored from neither, but the Surbiton defence, perhaps distracted by the uncertainty leading up to the second, allowed the ball immediately back into the circle from which Simon Egerton scored what proved to be the winner with ten minutes remaining.

Surbiton still need six points from their five remaining games to avoid the ninth relegation play-off spot. But any points at all will be a bonus this Sunday with the Elmbridge club away (Sonning Lane, 2.30pm) to Reading, who are still leading the league by six points - and Surbiton by 16 - despite a first defeat of the season, 2-0 at home to Cannock, last Sunday.